YESTERDAY was not a proud day for Scottish democracy.
The Scottish Government's Justice Committee had an opportunity to reconsider proposals to shut 17 sheriff and justice of the peace courts across Scotland, effectively centralising the delivery of justice. Following hundreds of objections to the plans and a number of well-argued campaigns by constituents, MSPs would have been fully justified in sending the matter back to parliament for reconsideration.
A number of these courts are in old county towns such as Haddington and Peebles where justice has been dispensed for centuries and where the courts are integral to the local community. But, rather than making a stand for local justice, MSPs simply voted along party lines.
SNP members, plus independent John Finnie (formerly SNP), all voted for the closures, despite several having actively supported and encouraged campaigns for the retention of courts in their own constituencies. This includes committee convenor Christine Grahame, who fought to save Peebles Sheriff Court. Returning the issue to the chamber would have forced a rethink in response to the arguments raised during the public consultation. Nobody is suggesting that the Scottish justice system should be preserved in aspic and some rationalisation is certainly justified.
However, to present the closures as a necessary part of a modernisation plan is disingenuous. These proposals are entirely driven by the need to accommodate a 20% revenue cut imposed by the Scottish Government on the Scottish Court Service (SCS), in addition to a reduction in the capital budget from £20m to £4m. It is equally disingenuous to suggest that these plans have been welcomed and endorsed by Lord Gill, Scotland's most senior judge. Given the budget imposed on SCS, he had little choice.
In the context of the Scottish Government's annual budget, the sums involved are small. As The Herald has argued throughout this debate, good justice should be swift, accessible and seen to be done. So far as is possible an accused should be tried by a jury from the local area. It is hard to see how moving proceedings from Dingwall to Inverness or Haddington to Edinburgh, for instance, is going to improve matters, especially when some courts already have lengthy waiting lists.
Police face extra travelling time and expense, as do other witnesses and members of the public, especially if reliant of the vagaries of public transport. The result is likely to be more non-appearance warrants and costly adjournments.
There are wider policy implications too. Some of these towns are already struggling economically and courts provide both employment and income for local businesses. There seems to be an inability to consider such issues in the round. For many communities, this decision means the end of local justice. It is a pity that, given a choice between supporting their constituents and toeing the party line, some MSPs chose the latter.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article