SCTS News

The First Minister announced a number of COVID related measures on 19 December. Most notably all of mainland Scotland will be placed into level 4 COVID protection arrangements for a 3-week period – from Boxing Day until 16 January. Courts and tribunals are defined as essential services that remain open under all 4 levels of the current COVID arrangements. Business programmed for this week and the coming weeks will, therefore, continue as normal. If you are due to attend a court or tribunal in the coming period you should continue to do so – unless specifically advised otherwise.

The latest workbook showing the throughput of criminal cases in our courts is published today.

Sheriff and jury trials in Scotland restarted this week and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service has published a series of advisory videos for jurors, witnesses and professionals participating in trials operating at remote jury centres.

The tenth SCTS Quarterly Criminal Court Statistical bulletin is published today showing steady progress in the volumes of criminal cases being processed in courts.

As announced in September, new rules will come into force on 1 December 2020 which will make electronic submission of simple procedure cases mandatory.