REPORT NO 566/05 ANGUS COUNCIL STRATEGIC POLICY COMMITTEE – 10 MAY 2005 REVIEW OF SUMMARY JUSTICE – SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE’S PROPOSALS REPORT BY THE DIRECTOR OF LAW & ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACT This Report advises members of the Scottish Executive’s proposals in relation to the previous consultation document on the Review of Summary Justice. 1. RECOMMENDATION It is recommended that the Committee notes the proposals. 2. BACKGROUND Reference is made to Report 814/04 which advised members of the consultation being undertaken by the Scottish Executive in connection with the Review of Summary Justice and proposed responses thereto on behalf of the Council. The Scottish Executive have now issued a document entitled “Smarter Justice, Safer Communities – Summary Justice Reform – Next Steps”. This document contains the Scottish Executive’s proposals on how reform of Summary Justice will be implemented and this Report advises members of the implications of those proposals for Angus Council. Members will recall that Angus Council is responsible for running the District Court within the Commission Area of Angus (which includes the whole county). Although there is one District Court within the Angus Commission Area, it sits in three separate locations, namely in Arbroath on a weekly basis each Friday, in Forfar on the first Wednesday of each month and in Brechin on the third Wednesday of each month. Due to pressure of accommodation within Forfar Sheriff Court because of sittings of the High Court, for approximately three years the Forfar District Court has sat in Brechin on the first Monday of each month. The type of offences which are referred by the Procurator Fiscal to this Court include many of the driving offences including speeding, other road traffic offences, breach of the peace, assaults, all failures to pay fixed penalties offered by the Fiscal and other less serious offences. The volume of work of the District Court is such that the Department of Law and Administration employs three full time equivalent administrators (currently five members of staff), and the legal advice provided to the Justices of the Peace, including training, if condensed into one post would be equivalent to a full time Solicitor. In 2002 the Scottish Executive announced that it would review the whole of Summary Justice which includes not only the District Court but also the High Court and Sheriff Court throughout Scotland. Summary Justice accounts for approximately 96% of criminal court business with over 130,000 cases being dealt with each year. The purpose of the review was to ensure that the court procedural system was as efficient as possible, to minimise delays and streamline the existing system to ensure that justice provides a fair and appropriate response across the whole Summary Justice system. In 2004 the Summary Justice Review Committee published its report and many of the recommendations of the report do not affect the running of the District Court. However, the following proposals are highlighted as being relevant in this regard. 3. PROPOSALS 2 3.1 Lay Justices will continue to exist to carry out Court business within their current powers. They will be appointed for a fixed term period of five years which will be capable of renewal until the age of 70. All training of lay Justices will be undertaken on a national basis. The current Justices of the Peace Advisory Committees will be replaced by a new Advisory Committee for each Sheriffdom chaired by the Sheriff Principal and will include representatives from active lay Justices and the wider community. Justices will require to be appraised regularly and signing Justices will be retained, although a separate name to distinguish between signing Justices and bench Justices is being considered. 3.2 The District Court will be unified within the rest of the Summary administration and this will be phased in across Scotland on a Sheriffdom by Sheriffdom basis. The Scottish Executive believe that unification will not reduce the number of locations for businesses conducted within Scotland and a unified system will take account of the needs of victims, witnesses and the communities within which they are located. The Scottish Executive accepts that further work requires to be carried out on such matters as costs, estates, staffing and IT as all of these issues are at present managed on a very separate basis. As unification proceeds, the administration of all fines imposed in and collected by the unified summary criminal courts will become the responsibility of the Scottish Courts service. A working group will look at the efficiency of fine collection and pilot projects of new approaches to collect fines will be undertaken within the course of this Parliament. 3.3 The Scottish Executive believe that a greater number of alternatives to prosecution should be made available to Procurators Fiscal prior to commencement of court proceedings. Fixed Penalty Notices will be further extended and the anti-social behaviour pilot scheme will be monitored but the option remains to roll out the use of Fixed Penalties in connection with ASBOs to a greater extent. Fiscal fines will be increased to a maximum of £500 (presently £100). Fiscal Compensation Orders will be increased to £5,000. Some technical changes will be made to the collection of Fiscal Compensation Orders and Fiscal fines which will include discounts for timeous payment, registration of the fine on failure to make payment and removing the obligation to collect part paid Fiscal fines by civil diligence. Details of previously accepted Fiscal fines will also be provided by prosecutors in Court for a period of two years after imposition of the penalty. 3.4 A new Community Fiscal fine will be introduced where reparation to the community is appropriate rather than a financial penalty. These Community Fiscal fines will be the further subject of consultation. 3.5 To enhance better case management, the Scottish Executive proposes to introduce a number of measures to speed up Summary Justice including sentences taking into account the stage at which an accused intimates his intention to plead guilty, the non reporting by the police to the Procurator Fiscal of certain minor offences, and the piloting of the use of restorative police warnings for young people who have committed minor offences. In addition a number of other issues will be implemented including raising the maximum fine from £5,000 to £10,000 for a Sheriff, the implementation of targets and goals to measure the length of time from detection to disposal of a crime, increased use in electronic documentation, greater use of trial in absence procedures and greater protection for vulnerable witnesses. 4. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS There are no financial implications arising from this Report and any financial implications arising from the implementation of the recommendations will be brought forward to Committee in a subsequent Report. 5. HUMAN RIGHTS IMPLICATIONS There are no human rights implications arising from this Report. 6. CONSULTATION The Chief Executive and Director of Finance have been consulted on the preparation of this Report. f:\committee reports\strategic policy\2005\566.rtf 3 7. CONCLUSION The proposals outlined by the Executive will have radical implications for the Council staff involved in providing the current service. However, the Executive considers that incorporating the District Court into the existing Sheriff Court administration could produce benefits by creating a more streamlined approach to the whole administration of Justice. Much consideration requires to be given to issues of accommodation, staff transfers and the integration of IT systems before amalgamation will be successful. CATHERINE A COULL Director of Law and Administration NOTE: No background papers, as defined by Section 50D of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (other than any containing confidential or exempt information) were relied on to any material extent in preparing the above Report. f:\committee reports\strategic policy\2005\566.rtf .