Prosecutors are to run special hubs to carry out initial case processing as they move to streamline operations amid a growing workload.
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service or COPFS announced plans for a first such centre by April 2015 as it unveiled its strategic plan for the next three years.
Despite falling crime, the Crown has got busier in recent years as prosecutors take on increasingly difficult matters such as sex offences and cold case homicides a
The body has responded - like much of the rest of the justice system - by promising progress on digitalising its work.
Last year it said its prosecutors would be able to use tablets in court.
It has also developed teams of specialist prosecutors for crime such as rape and wildlife crime.
Crown Agent Catherine Dyer, in the strategic plan published on Monday, suggested initial case processing should also amount to a specialist, ensuring consistency
She said: "Current plans are to move to centralised management of this work from April 2015, while consideration is being given to transferring this work to one or more centralised hubs over the course of the plan period."
Ms Dyer also suggested that a national High Court function could be organised by the end of 2018, depending on developments elsewhere in the justice system.
She said: "Our workload has been increasing over recent years, with reports received increasing by 5% since 2009-2010 to 303,221.
"The nature of the cases being reported to us has changed, with our
receiving more complex cases, such as sexual offences cases, which require more investigation and more resources to prosecute than other
types of cases.
"This trend is shown by the increased numbers of cases going to trial."
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