Serious criminal trials backlogged in Scotland's Sheriff Courts due to Covid-19 restrictions may not be cleared until 2026 according to figures released on Thursday.
The backlog of solemn business may not be cleared until March 2026 and at the high court until 2025 due to the continuing trend in increased case levels on top of the Covid backlog, according to statistics released by the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (SCTS).
Summary criminal cases for less serious crimes should be cleared by March 2024 as expected after the trial backlog was reduced by 8900 cases since the beginning of 2022.
SCTS say they are switching court recovery resources from summary to solemn in order to work through cases more quickly.
Solemn cases are the more serious cases which could lead to a trial with a jury before a judge or sheriff while summary cases are more minor and can be dealt with by a sheriff alone.
The figures, published as part of the SCTS monthly workbooks, also show the overall level of new cases registered is 87% of the average pre-Covid level.
READ MORE: Number of Scots aged 100 or more passes 1,000 for first time
Additionally, the number of petitions, which provide a “useful indicator” of future solemn business, are 25% higher than the average monthly pre-Covid level.
The average time between the pleading diet and evidence-led trial is 49 weeks for the High Court compared to the pre-Covid level of 22 weeks.
David Fraser, SCTS Executive Director Court Operations, said: “The statistics demonstrate the courts recovery programme is having an impact in reducing the backlog created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The trial backlog has reduced by 8,900 trials since the start of the year, with the percentage of cases concluded above pre-Covid levels.
“The collaboration across the judiciary, justice organisations, the legal profession and the third sector is helping to effectively manage court business, including the ongoing delivery of the recovery programme.
“The monthly publication on throughput of cases, combined with the revised modelling reports, illustrate the progress being made and the challenges still ahead.”
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 here