The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service quarterly statistical bulletin is published today providing quarterly Official Statistics on criminal case activity in Scotland. This bulletin covers the period 2022/23.
The 20th QCC bulletin shows the sustained impact of the 16 additional trial courts introduced in September 2021 with the number of trials scheduled falling by 10% to 27,406 at the end of March 2023 compared to the previous quarter end (30,305).
Other highlights include:
- There were 85,859 first instance criminal cases registered in Scottish courts in 2022/23, which is 81% of the pre-COVID volume in 2019/20.
- Evidence led trials rose by 21% to 9,051 in 2022/23 compared to 7,505 in 2021/22.
- A total of 99,671 cases concluded in 2022/23 – an increase of 15% from 2021/22 and 98% of pre-COVID levels.
- In 2022/23 domestic abuse cases accounted for 24% of Sheriff Summary registrations; 27% of Sheriff Summary trials called and 34% of Sheriff Summary trials in which evidence was led.
Commenting on the bulletin SCTS Executive Director Court Operations, David Fraser, said:
“I am delighted to mark five years of SCTS proactivity and transparency in criminal statistics with the publication of QCC 20.
"The latest figures show the volume of scheduled trials has reduced by 36% since the peak in winter 2021/22. This is a 68% reduction in the trial backlog caused by Covid-19 pandemic.
"Through the court recovery programme we are aiming to return to a point where the number of scheduled cases being prepared for trial is around 20,000.
"Given the progress being made on the summary backlog we have now switched court recovery resources from summary to solemn, with the introduction of a further 2 additional High Court and 6 additional Sheriff Solemn trial courts. Solemn cases, which involves the most serious crimes, are more challenging as the long term trend of increasing case levels continued throughout the pandemic. Our modelling projects that with the new resources in place High Court cases will return to the revised baseline by March 2025 and Sheriff Solemn cases by March 2026.
"We continue to make progress due to the excellent collaboration across the judiciary, justice organisations, the legal profession and the third sector which has helped get court business back on track. This collaboration remains crucial during the recovery programme and the anticipated increase in solemn case registrations.”