About you
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Fiona McKinnon
The impact of COVID
1. Whether the Scottish Government is providing enough budget for the criminal justice sector to recover from COVID-19?
Please provide your response in the box provided.
Insufficient funding for criminal defence. COPFS are recruiting from our ranks due to their resolved dispute with Scottish Government and criminal bar cannot compete with salary package and contract terms due to decades of under investment. eg SLAB budget underspend during pandemic of £21.5 million. Reinvestment through Resilience fund which failed to deliver and RRT programme - £9 million. There is no equality of arms. We can train solicitors but how can we retain them? Defence solicitors are leaving for public sector jobs and can double their salary overnight.
2. What the cost will be of making permanent some of the temporary changes brought in because of the pandemic (if these are to become permanent)?
Please provide your response in the box provided.
Root and branch review of legal aid provision is long overdue.
3. Whether organisations in the criminal justice sector have enough budget and staff to be able to cope with a return to pre-pandemic levels of working (e.g. expected growth in the number of court trials)?
Please provide your response in the box provided.
Defence has been underfunded for decades and due to the court programme during covid ony dealinfg with priority custodies and remand trials for months, defence agents sought other employment and will not return to the sector. Now that the courts are loading cases for the RRT programme, there are not enough solicitors to deal with the caseload.
4. Whether there have been any savings and efficiencies because of the different way of working during the pandemic, what these savings have been used for elsewhere, and could they be kept once the pandemic is over?
Please provide your response in the box provided.
See the legal aid budget for the impact upon practitioners.
5. Where are the opportunities for future reform and savings?
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In person hearings for substantive decisions should be the norm. Effective participation in the proceedings is key to a civilised society and the administration of justice. The fact that public counters remain closed 18 months after the pandemic hit us in Scotland demonstrates this Government's lack of commitment to access. Remote courts are particularly badly hit by the ongoing policy of using hub courts. These are policy decisions for administrative convenience and do not have access to justice as their primary focus.
The budget provided for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS)
1. Whether the Scottish Government is providing enough budget for the work expected of the COPFS?
Please provide your response in the box provided.
Compared to the Defence, there is a disproportionate investment in the Crown. If crime is falling and the number of cases proceeding to court is proportionally very little, why is the budget for COPFS so large and ever increasing?
2. What is the expected impact of the budget of the COPFS from the recent cases of malicious prosecution?
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This has soiled the reputation of COPFS and is an absolute disgrace. The payments far exceed the sums reinvested in legal aid. A strong, independent bar is essential to challenge a Government and this is now in jeopardy due to lack of investment.
Prisons, prison reform and secure care
1. Whether the Scottish Government is providing enough budget for the work expected of the Scottish Prison Service?
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Prisoners have been adversely affected by the pandemic.
Legal aid
1. Whether the Scottish Government is providing enough budget to enable people to access justice through the support provided by legal aid in criminal cases?
Please provide your response in the box provided.
No. The criminal register of practitioners is being reduced because we cannot compete with public sector terms and conditions. Civil assistance is being reduced because remuneration is not comensurate with private rates. There are towns across the country where there is either no or limitied provision of legal aid services. This does not bode well for access to justoce.
2. Whether further budget and reforms are necessary to tackle the problem of accessing legal aid in remote and rural areas of Scotland?
Please provide your response in the box provided.
Modelling should show that investment in legal aid provision to allow already established Firms to provide this essential service is far more cost effective than providing CLAO and PDSO offices. PLEASE RESOLVE LEGAL AID REFORM AS A MATTER OF URGENCY.
3. Whether the Scottish Government is providing enough budget to attract people to work for organisations providing services funded by legal aid (e.g. defence solicitors)?
Please provide your response in the box provided.
No. Ask any faculty impacted and they can ilustrate that salary and packages in the public sector will now considerably outstrip those of the legal aid sector. eg Newly qualified solicitor receiving £25,000 pa leaving for COPFS at £42,000.
We will be unable to retain legal aid practitioners due to this disparity. It is also about work/life balance with better terms and conditions. Holiday court work introduced by the pandemic, suspending all court holidays for custody cases was introduced without consultation nor without any consideration of an enhanced payment, leading defence solicitors to be the only professional participants in these courts without enhanced remuneration for their inconvenience. No-one else is effectively compelled to work on public holidays. This is symptomatic of our treatment.
We will be unable to retain legal aid practitioners due to this disparity. It is also about work/life balance with better terms and conditions. Holiday court work introduced by the pandemic, suspending all court holidays for custody cases was introduced without consultation nor without any consideration of an enhanced payment, leading defence solicitors to be the only professional participants in these courts without enhanced remuneration for their inconvenience. No-one else is effectively compelled to work on public holidays. This is symptomatic of our treatment.
The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government
1. What money will be required to finance the different criminal justice policies set out in the new Programme for Government and whether any new and extra finance has been allocated for the various initiatives?
Please provide your response in the box provided.
Investment in legal aid is essential for the principle of access to justice to be effective.