Next steps announced towards digital justice

Further steps towards developing a digitally based criminal justice system have been announced by Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service, following a series of public roadshows on its initial proposals.

In a new report published today, SCTS states that the upshot from the feedback received is that "In the main, the original proposal required tweaking as opposed to fundamental redesign." The Justice Board is "convinced that the opportunities and enthusiasm exist to bring about substantial modernisation to summary criminal justice in Scotland".

Its core proposals were that:

• Pre-trial procedures should take place as part of a digital case management process. Court hearings are only held to address unresolved issues, with strong judicial case oversight to focus the trial on those areas of dispute.
• There is no automatic setting of an intermediate diet and trial diet on a not guilty plea and witnesses are cited only where a trial diet is ready and likely to proceed.
• Where a witness is cited, a digital update system keeps the witness informed and minimises inconvenience where possible
• In appropriate cases where guilty pleas are tendered, sentencing could be conducted digitally without the need for the appearance of the accused in court.

However the working group on the proposals accepts that there is no straightforward response to some of the concerns raised. These include:

• Likely reduced level of client engagement with defence lawyers, which often takes place when an accused is required to attend court. "It is recognised that there will always be some accused persons who will not readily engage with the justice system", the report states. "This is a challenge in the current system and will be in the new system. There is no obvious solution to this and further discussion with the legal profession will be required to establish how they, and their clients, will adapt to the new procedure."
• What sanctions to impose for failing to comply with the case management process. The report agrees that there is "no single straightforward solution" to this: "The avenue for impacting on legal aid payment requires further exploration. The most significant motivator for accused persons is likely to be that non-attendance will not interrupt court proceedings, and that hearings will still proceed where an accused person has not taken up their right to attend."

More work also needs to be done on the effectiveness of serving summary complaints by email; and whether trials should be held in absence.

As regards assistance for unrepresented accused in navigating the system, a hearing would be set up to explain the process to them; it is also suggested that where the accused is unrepresented, the case is more likely to be a straightforward one that might be suitable for a fast track process.

Generally, the report does not accept that the system will become "depersonalised", as hearings will still take place and accused will still be cited to attend court. One change from the earlier proposals is that online pleas will be an option as opposed to the only available method. However the main respect in which it departs from the previous model is that sentencing will still take place in court in the majority of cases, and only take place digitally in certain cases where the accused has pleaded guilty and the sheriff so decides. 

Eric McQueen, chief executive of SCTS commented: “Taking all of those views into account, the cross-justice working group who developed the proposals, is of the opinion that with appropriate amendment of the original proposals, there is scope to develop the model for potential legislation and implementation. This will include further consideration of the financial as well as procedural implications of moving towards a more digitally enabled system. On behalf of the Justice Board, SCTS will be seeking the support of Scottish Government to consider wider public consultation to help shape future legislation change.”

He added: "However, in advance of any legislation we can start this journey early next year by testing out some of the ideas and principles. These are likely to include the development and piloting of a practice note for summary criminal cases introducing strong judicial case management, encouraging earlier engagement between parties to identify those matters in dispute in the case and potentially only fixing trial diets when prosecution and defence are sufficiently prepared and the issues requiring proof have been properly focused."