Pilot to reduce witnesses attending court coming to Glasgow

A report shows a pilot scheme positively affected domestic abuse victims by reducing witnesses attending court unnecessarily by one third in a year.

The Summary Case Management Pilot, introduced at sheriff courts in Dundee, Hamilton and Paisley in September last year, will be expanded to Glasgow in 2024.

Currently, the majority of witnesses cited in summary sheriff court cases will never appear at a trial, and only about one in 10 police officers will appear to give evidence.

The pilot is intended to be less traumatic for victims and to free up police officers, by focusing on early guilty pleas and improved communication between lawyers in summary cases in sheriff court.

One woman, who was part of the pilot having suffered domestic abuse, said it had rebuilt her trust in the Scottish justice system, which she had previously perceived to be "failing", and had given her the confidence to support a prosecution.

Feedback in the report said: "She wanted it noted that she feels the pilot will be extremely beneficial to people like her who have previously been victims of domestics on multiple occasions and she has a lot more faith in the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service now."

A response from Police Scotland said: "Police Scotland are seeing a reduction of first issue citations for domestic cases by up to 34% in all pilot courts.

"This equates to around 5,000 citations not being served on operational officers. This reduction is welcomed by Police Scotland as more officers are available to deliver a policing service to local communities.”

Sheriff principal Aisha Anwar said: "It is improving the efficiency of our summary criminal courts to the benefit of complainers, witnesses, the accused and wider society.

"As a result we are now looking to roll out the pilot to other areas starting with domestic abuse cases in Glasgow Sheriff Court at the end of January 2024.

"The pilot can only operate successfully with the co-operation of those who work across the justice sector. I thank them for engaging positively with the pilot, which is having a significant impact on the number of unnecessary hearings and the number of witnesses cited in summary courts."

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