Urgent resolution needed to custody chaos in Scottish criminal courts

The Law Society of Scotland has called for urgent action to resolve major disruption caused to Scottish criminal courts by failing custody arrangements.

Criminal practitioners have reported major delays to proceedings at courts across Scotland as a result of inadequate service levels being provided by custody contracting company GEOAmey.

The negative impact has been greater still in the Grampian, Highland and Islands Sheriffdom, with Sheriff Principal Pyle announcing this week that future jury trials will be unable to proceed at Stornoway, Lerwick, Kirkwall, Portree and Lochmaddy Sheriff Courts as a result of staffing challenges faced by GEOAmey.

Law Society of Scotland President Sheila Webster said: “We’ve been receiving disturbing and unacceptable reports of delays and disruption in courts across Scotland for quite some time, and it appears that the problems are getting worse with no end in sight.

“Criminal solicitors have described the level of service being provided by GEOAmey as disgraceful, with hours-long delays commonplace. Whatever the cause of these disruptions, a solution must be found urgently so the provision of criminal justice can return to normal.

“These major-scale delays are undermining access to justice and causing significant hardship for solicitors and everyone else interacting with our criminal justice system.

“We’re particularly concerned at the total upheaval caused to solemn matters in the Grampian, Highland and Islands Sheriffdom. Scotland’s local sheriff courts are a fundamental part of our criminal justice system, and they must not be sidelined by failures such as those we’re currently seeing.”