Lawyer criticises court sitting delays in Scotland

A lawyer has described delays in Scotland's criminal justice system, which saw one court sit for more than 10 hours, as a "national crisis".

Matthew McGovern shared his experiences at Hamilton Sheriff Court on social media. He told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland that custody arrangements were causing problems across the country.

Prisoner services provider GEOAmey said it faced an increase in demand for its services.

On Monday, Mr McGovern posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the court finished at 10.20pm. He told the programme the last suspect was transferred by GEOAmey from a local police station to the court at 8.30pm.

Mr McGovern, of Lanarkshire firm McGovern Reid, said: "To put that in context, custody court starts at 12 o'clock.

"That is the extent of the delays we are dealing with just now."