Procurator-fiscal service under strain Crown Agent tells of struggle to meet growing workload

with poor resources to tackle an enormous and growing workload.

Appearing before the Commons Public Accounts Committee, he disclosed

that the fiscal service was 15 short of its complement and that he was

having great difficulty in finding new recruits because pay rates did

not match those in the private sector.

Mr Dean -- who was given an uncomfortable time by the committee --

also said that occasionally he asked for help from the Faculty of

Advocates and retired fiscals to try to help clear the backlog of cases.

He said he understood that the Lord-Advocate soon would be meeting

sheriff-principals and that the only item on the

agenda would be court delays.

The Crown Agent's appearance before the committee followed publication

last week of a highly-critical report on the prosecution of crime in

Scotland by the National Audit Office.

It savaged the Scottish justice system over delays to trials, wasted

police and witness time on abandoned or delayed cases, and extraordinary

inconsistencies in levels of cases marked for no proceedings.

The report showed, for example, that in Glasgow the average delay at

district courts between the accused's plea and trial was 21 weeks, while

at the sheriff court it was 17 weeks.

''No proceedings'' cases ranged from 2.5% in Forfar to more than 25%

in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Mr Dean said his department, which administers the procurator-fiscal

service, was doing its best to solve the problems and already had taken

up some of the points made by the NAO.

He said information would be sought from all procurator-fiscal offices

in Scotland on the number of cases being marked for no proceedings,

which categories of cases were being so marked and why.

In addition, there was to be a new, central reporting system for the

police, following criticism by some fiscals -- reflected in the NAO

report -- of the standard of police reports.

The Crown Agent also told the committee that attempts were being made

to deal with those areas where the longest delays were being experienced

in bringing cases to court.

There were what he described as ''blitzes'' in some areas to reduce

the backlog and those with delays of 12 weeks or more had been set a

target of reducing this by one week a year.

Asked by Dr John Reid (Motherwell North -- Lab.) if an Englishman

reading the NAO report would be impressed by the efficiency of the

procurator-fiscal service, Mr Dean replied: ''If you look at the way we

deal with serious cases, and bearing in mind the constraints of the

110-day rule, he would still think we are dealing with most cases in a

reasonable manner.''

The Crown Agent was challenged by Tory MP Mr Michael Shersby

(Uxbridge) whether any of the cases marked ''no proceedings'' had

involved the death of a victim. He replied: ''They are minor cases but

without advance warning I really cannot answer that at the moment.''

Mr Dean's appearance before the committee coincided with a lobby of

MPs by a delegation from the Scottish Police Federation, which claims it

drew attention to many of the problems pinpointed by the NAO 15 months

ago but was rebuffed by Ministers.

The federation's spokesman, Chief Inspector James Brown, of Lothian

and Borders Police, said: ''We are here to ensure these points are taken

on board by as many MPs as possible.''