The Scotsman Bulletin Monday February 17 2025 #Justice

The Scotsman

Dale speaks to investigations correspondent Martyn McLaughlin about his week long series on the justice system in Scotland

Transcript

00:00Hello, we're here to bring you a special edition of the Scotsman's Video Bulletin.

00:06We're going to focus exclusively on a new week-long series that we're launching, and

00:13it's branded Justice Denied.

00:15It's to do with Scotland's legal system and just some of the problems that have become

00:22more evident over recent years, particularly since the COVID pandemic.

00:27The full series is brought to you by our Investigations Correspondent, Martin McLaughlin, who joins

00:32me today to talk about the focus of this.

00:36Martin, I guess our reporting has touched on some of these issues, but we've never brought

00:41it together into a series.

00:43Can you tell us a little bit about what the series is about, what it will cover, and why

00:48you think it's important to be covering these issues?

00:51Thanks, Neil.

00:53Fundamentally, this series is focusing on Scotland's criminal justice system and the

00:59extraordinary pressures and burdens it has to bear, the progress it's made over the past

01:05few years, and the challenges that are going to remain for the foreseeable future.

01:11As everyone knows, the pandemic exerted an extraordinary degree of disruption to the

01:18criminal justice system, as indeed it did to every other part of the public sector.

01:23There's been huge amounts of ongoing work to drive down those delays.

01:30The number of scheduled trials at its peak stood at over 43,000.

01:35That's been more than halved, according to the latest data.

01:40But there are other attendant pressures, and all of this is interlinked.

01:45Every important part of the criminal justice system, if there were problems or hold-ups,

01:49it impacts the rest of the system in its entirety.

01:54So the first part of the series I've looked at, just how long it takes cases to conclude,

01:59how long victims of crime are waiting, from the date an offence took place to the date

02:05a verdict is delivered in court, and some of the most serious crimes, you're talking

02:11rates of three years plus.

02:14So it's a really significant amount of delays.

02:17People are putting their lives on hold, their lives are effectively in limbo.

02:21And for the justice system, there is no easy answer as to how we drive those delays down

02:27back to a pre-pandemic level.

02:29There's been lots of innovation over the past couple of years, and lots of success, such

02:34as with the summary case management pilot, which is being rolled out nationwide.

02:39But it's pretty clear from researching and writing this series that there's going to

02:43have to be some more innovations in order to expedite the progress that's been achieved

02:49so far.

02:50Martin, I know you reference victims of crime there, if you're contemplating or putting

02:55yourself in the shoes of someone who is waiting three years to get a verdict, it's an extremely

03:01long wait, and one that would be mentally troubling and extremely difficult for a lot

03:06of people caught up in the delays of the system.

03:10Martin, I know a lot of people have worked with you, given their time and given interviews

03:16to be involved with this series.

03:18I know we're not going to give away every part, but can you just talk me through a little

03:22bit of that and what we might cover this week?

03:25Yeah, absolutely, Dale.

03:27It's in no way exhaustive.

03:29The criminal justice system is an enormous beast, as I'm sure you're only too aware.

03:34I've tried to span the breadth of people who are involved in it, from victims and support

03:40organisations who are helping victims of crime, all the way through to the heads of some of

03:47the major criminal justice organisations in Scotland.

03:51I've spoken to defence lawyers, I've spoken to prosecutors.

03:56So really, I've tried to run the whole gamut of the system and try and analyse these pinch

04:02points that are taking place at a systemic level, and work out how they feed into each

04:07other and what needs to be done in order to try and drive down a lot of these delays and

04:13backlogs further.

04:14So I'd like to think it's a pretty comprehensive series and quite authoritative, and I think

04:21there'll be a few surprising stories coming over the coming days.

04:26And Martin, is it fair to say that the people working within the legal system or the criminal

04:32justice system, you know, lawyers and people in official roles, they're concerned about

04:40this, aren't they?

04:40They feel that the delays and the waits for people to get justice can't keep going on,

04:46just forever unchanged.

04:48Hugely concerned, Dale.

04:49I mean, it's a fundamental crisis.

04:52And there are elements of the criminal justice system who regard now, at this present moment

04:58in time, as the greatest challenge they've had to face, and not the pandemic itself.

05:03You know, it's the aftershock of the pandemic, coupled with what's happened since then.

05:08You know, there's been an increasing number of serious crimes coming to court, and these

05:15offences take a considerable amount of time.

05:18I mean, you consider the way a rape is prosecuted in Scotland, you know, 20 years ago, it would

05:24predominantly be a single incident and a single victim.

05:28Now, the way a rape is prosecuted, you're looking at multiple victims, you're looking

05:32at multiple instances going back years.

05:35And, you know, a case that could have been disposed of relatively quickly in the courts

05:40is now taking several weeks to run in the courts of justice.

05:45So there's all these kind of factors that are combining with the pre-existing backlog

05:51to really complicate matters.

05:52But the people involved deeply care about ensuring justice is done.

05:58I think if there's one thread that ties all the different stories I've written together,

06:02that is the concern that we have to maintain faith in the rule of law, and that victims

06:08can have justice delivered in a swift and timely manner.

06:13And we know this comes against the backdrop of a lot of debate about whether jury-less

06:17trials should have gone ahead as well.

06:20So, look, it's a fascinating area.

06:23Martin, thanks for talking us through the extent of the series and what you're covering

06:27throughout this week.

06:28You can read every part of it at scotsman.com, and please, it'll be in our paper as well

06:35every day throughout this week, running Monday to Saturday.

06:39Please follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram and Blue Sky for all your latest news throughout

06:44the week.

06:45Martin, thanks to you and thanks to everyone else for joining us.

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