Warning of three-year waits for trials without extra cash for Scotland’s courts

Failing to increase the cash available to Scotland’s courts could lead to waits of more than three years for the most serious cases to come to trial, MSPs have been warned.

Malcolm Graham, chief executive of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, said a “flat cash settlement” – where funding stays the same from one year to the next – in 2025-26 would be the equivalent of removing 10 courts dealing with serious cases from the system.

He added that with the number of solemn cases – where an accused stands trial either in the high court or before a sheriff and jury – growing, “the impact of a flat cash settlement would be immediate and drastic”.

With SCTS currently forecast to spend “around £213m” on day-to-day running costs in 2024-25, a submission to MSPs on Holyrood’s Criminal Justice Committee added that further cash was needed for next year.

“Our projections indicate that an uplift of £20.8 million in baseline revenue funding will be required in 2025-26,” it said.

“This is to avoid any deterioration in service and to maintain progress on planned reforms.”

Questioned by MSPs on the matter when he appeared at the committee on Wednesday, Mr Graham spoke about the impact it could have if the Scottish Government was to impose a “flat cash settlement”.

He stated this “would result in the need to reduce court and tribunal business programmes, and to postpone more or less all the changes we had planned to improve services over the coming year”.

Mr Graham added: “To give an indication on the impact of the courts, absorbing these pressures would be the equivalent to removing 10 solemn trial courts – say four high courts and six sheriff and jury courts – with effect from April 2025.”

He continued: “Our modelling indicates that victims, witnesses and the accused in the most serious cases could be waiting for more than three years to come to court for a trial.

“This would be completely at odds with the commitment across the justice sector to reduce traumatisation for victims and witnesses of crime.”

He said if the SCTS receives the funding it has requested, it would be “able to continue investing in our people, our reform programmes”, adding these would help “improve service quality for those who find themselves involved in the justice system through no fault of their own”.

Mr Graham said: “We’re at a critical stage of making real changes to how the system operates, both to improve services and manage future pressures.

“My conversations with the Government have been a plea to sustain that funding, which is going to be critical to ensure we continue to make that positive progress and maintain a sustainable and effective justice system in the years to come.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We have a strong track record on court investment. Despite deeply challenging financial circumstances, we increased funding for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service this year by over £14m to £165.9m.

“We will continue to work with the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service to understand their future budget requirements ahead of the next Scottish Budget.”