Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill

Closed 8 Sep 2023

Opened 19 Jun 2023

Contact

vwjrbill@parliament.scot

Published responses

View submitted responses where consent has been given to publish the response.

Overview

The Scottish Government is proposing a new law which aims to improve the experiences of victims and witnesses within Scotland’s justice system – in particular, the victims of sexual crime. The new law would also make some broader reforms to the criminal justice process. 

 

The Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill is split into six parts. 

Part 1: 

  • creates the office of Victims and Witnesses Commissioner for Scotland 

Part 2: 

  • embeds trauma-informed practice in criminal and civil courts 

Part 3: 

  • increases the availability of special measures for vulnerable witnesses and parties in civil court proceedings 

Part 4: 

  • changes the size of a criminal jury from 15 to 12 

  • makes rules about majority verdicts and what happens when a juror is dismissed or unable to continue on the jury 

  • removes the not proven verdict 

Part 5: 

  • creates a new sexual offences court and sets out how it will operate within the criminal justice system 

Part 6: 

  • provides automatic life-long anonymity for victims of sexual offences 

  • gives complainers in sexual offence cases an automatic right to independent legal representation when an application is made to introduce evidence about the complainer’s sexual history or character 

  • gives power to the Scottish Ministers to carry out a pilot of rape trials conducted by a single judge without a jury 

Call for Views

MSPs on the Scottish Parliament’s Criminal Justice Committee are looking at the proposals in the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill. 

They want to know what people think about them. 

Please complete the Call for Views below. It is not necessary to answer all the questions. 

Each of the questions is preceded by a short summary of the relevant provisions in the Bill. However you are invited to refer to the documentation published by the Scottish Government for the full details of the proposals in the Bill and the Scottish Government’s explanation of why they have been included. 

Here is a link to the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill. 

The Scottish Government has published a Policy Memorandum which explains the reasons for the proposals in the Bill. 

The Scottish Government has also published explanatory notes which explains in more detail what the Bill does. 

Click here to access an Easy Read version of the consultation that you can complete online

Click here to access an Easy Read version of the consultation that you can print off and return

Read more about the Crimal Justice Committee's approach to the scrutiny of Bill on our website. You can also watch the video below.

 

 

1. What are your views on Part 1 of the Bill which establishes a Victims and Witnesses Commissioner for Scotland? 

2. What are your views on Part 2 of the Bill which deals with trauma-informed practice in criminal and civil courts? 

3. What are your views on Part 3 of the Bill which deals with special measures in civil cases? 

4. What are your views on the proposal in Part 4 of the Bill to abolish the not proven verdict and move to either a guilty or not guilty verdict? 

5. What are your views on the changes in Part 4 of the Bill to the size of criminal juries and the majority required for conviction? 

6. What are your views on Part 5 of the Bill which establishes a Sexual Offences Court? 

7. What are your views on the proposals in Part 6 of the Bill relating to the anonymity of victims? 

8. What are your views on the proposals in Part 6 of the Bill relating to the right to independent legal representation for complainers? 

9. What are your views on the proposals in Part 6 of the Bill relating to a pilot of single judge rape trials with no jury? 

10. Are there provisions which are not in the Bill which you think should be? 

11. Do you have any additional comments on the Bill?

We welcome written views in English, Gaelic, Scots, BSL or any other language.  

The call for views closes on Friday 8 September 2023. 

Information about personal details in your views 

We recognise that your views may have been informed by your own personal experience of the criminal justice system, for example as a victim of crime; a complainer or witness in a trial; or as someone who has served as a juror.  

However, you should note that in order to comply with data protection requirements we may have to redact information if it can identify another living person and it would be unfair to that individual to publish the information that identifies them on our website. The threshold for assessing whether publishing of information is fair to the individual is higher where the information is sensitive personal data which includes information about criminal offences or health for example.  

If you are able to draft your submission in a way that does not include identifying information (like their name or where they live or work), it will assist us in publishing your submission in full. We will consider each submission on a case by case basis and contact you if we are unable to publish your submission in the form you have provided.  

Furthermore, we ask that you do not provide any details of live court cases.  

Finally, if you have served on a jury, we ask that you do not provide any details of anything which occurred on the jury, as this potentially could be a breach of the Contempt of Court Act 1981. 

How to submit your views

Please submit your views using the online submission form, linked to below.

We welcome written views in English, Gaelic, Scots, BSL or any other language. 

The call for views closes on Friday 8 September 2023.

Interests

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