SCOTLAND'S courts could take up to a decade to clear a backlog of cases built up during the coronavirus crisis unless they receive extra funding or introduce radical changes.

Eric McQueen, chief executive of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS), said the pandemic has had a "dramatic" impact on criminal justice. 

He said officials are discussing "some quite radical options" to boost capacity and get additional trials up and running.

Figures suggest jury trials in the sheriff courts have been the worst hit.

Prior to lockdown there were 500 serious criminal cases, or solemn cases, awaiting trial in Scotland's sheriff courts, but this is expected to have risen to 1,800 by the end of August.

Meanwhile, there were 14,000 non-jury cases outstanding in the sheriff courts before lockdown, and this is set to have risen to 27,000 by the end of the month.

At the High Court, which deals with the most serious criminal cases such as murder and rape, there were 390 cases awaiting trial prior to lockdown. 

Mr McQueen said the SCTS anticipates this will have risen to 750 by the end of August. 

However he said courts expect to start moving back to normal capacity following the announcement of new jury centres, which will allow juries to hear trials remotely from cinemas.

He added: "With that, what would happen over the next number of years is the number of outstanding trials would probably plateau at about 800. 

"So it would still be double the normal level, but it would plateau and not increase beyond the 800."

Mr McQueen said the SCTS is in discussion with the Scottish Government about further increasing capacity.

Speaking to Holyrood's Justice Committee, he said: "If we were able to do that, we could reduce the backlog in the High Court and bring it back to the normal levels within two years. 

"We are discussing some quite radical options about how we continue to increase capacity and we continue to get additional trials running to reduce that backlog.

"As we stand at the moment, the backlog over the next couple of years would probably be about twice the normal level."

Mr McQueen said the backlog of jury trials in sheriff courts would increase to well over 2,000 if current social distancing practices are maintained.  

He said: "Again, if we bring in the remote jury model – and that's what we're discussing with the Government at the moment – we anticipate that we can slowly start to eat into that backlog. 

"But it would take something round about five or six years to bring it back down to pre-Covid levels. 

"So again we are looking at ways that we can increase the capacity further to run more than the normal level of solemn trials.

"If we can get that operating, and the level of investment, it could potentially bring the trials back down to the pre-Covid levels again within a two-year period. 

"So for both the High Court and the sheriff court jury, there are options, if we can create the right environment and have the right funding, to find means where we could bring the trial backlogs back down to the normal level within about a two-year period."

In the wider sheriff courts, which face a backlog of 27,000 cases, Mr McQueen said the "full programme of courts" is now back up and running. 

He said: "That's running about 33 trial courts a day. What we would see is a gradual reduction in that backlog of about 2000 a year. 

"But just simply running 33 trial courts a day would take us a period of eight or 10 years to come back to the pre-Covid levels. 

"So again, what we're discussing with the Government is additional investment to increase capacity by about 25 per cent, putting an extra 10 trial courts up and running. 

"That could reduce the backlogs within about a three-year period. 

"The other option, which we will look at I think as we get into next year, is the potential to run courts over the weekend.

"If we brought that in, that could reduce us back down to the business as usual levels in two years."

He said there will need to be "significant discussions" over the coming weeks and months to find solutions. 

Scotland's justice of the peace courts, which deal with less serious summary crimes such as speeding or careless driving, had a backlog of around 3,500 cases before lockdown. This has now risen to around 8,000.

Mr McQueen said they could be back to normal in four years – or two years with additional investment.

He said: "On the criminal side, it is quite dramatic in terms of the impact both from lockdown, but also the ongoing impact of social distancing."

He said the SCTS is working on an assumption that social distancing will be in place until at least March next year. 

But it is also preparing for such measures to remain until March 2022.

Mr McQueen said Scotland's courts will "probably" make face masks mandatory in public areas in future.

Elsewhere, Teresa Medhurst, interim chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service, said the deaths of five prisoners have been linked to coronavirus, while 31 prisoners and 62 staff have tested positive since the start of the outbreak.