The Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on the 25th of April 2024. In a trend that is replicated in Westminster within the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 it aims to respond to concerns raised about the need to improve the experiences of victims and witnesses withing Scotland’s justice system, particularly the victims of sexual crime. The Bill aims to do a few key things, this includes: ensuring victims are treated with compassion and their voices are heard, ensuring justice meets the needs of survivors of sexual offences and ensuring that laws and legal processes meet the needs of modern Scotland and enable public confidence in the justice system.[1] This Bill looks to further better the experiences of Victims in Scotland, namely by establishing specialised courts and a Victims and Witnesses Commissioner, aiming to better services for community safety and highlights a more tailored intervention in reducing anti-social behaviour and other crime. Using a variety of evidence, the Bill has been chiefly informed by Lady Dorrian’s Review into Improving the Management of Sexual Offence Cases and also by the findings of the Governance Group.
Justice Secretary of Scotland, Angela Constance, has updated Parliament on the proposed amendments to this landmark Bill (Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs on the VWJR Bill 31 October 2024). After having listening to the cross-party Criminal Justice Committee, initial plans to enable a time-limited pilot of single-judge trials for rape and attempted rape cases will not be pursued. There are also plans to further amend the Bill which is subject to MSP’s approval, which will enable more detailed research into jury deliberations this includes how rape myths and misconceptions affect verdicts. This amendment would seek to understand the processes sexual offence victims go through, and understand better verdicts reached, hopefully making what is considered a highly under prosecuted crime, better prosecuted.
The amendments also include removing Scotland’s ‘not proven’ verdict, and to increase the current simple majority required for a criminal conviction, to a two-thirds majority of jurors. In line with the recommendations from the Committee, initial proposals to reduce the jury size from 15 to 12 will now be dropped.
The Victim Notification Scheme, that is apart of the bill, will now be reformed to ensure victims receive improved support, advice and information.
Speaking on the Bill and it’s amendments Angela Constance said:
“This Bill proposes a significant package of reforms to ensure victims are placed at the heart of Scotland's justice system, such as creating a specialist Sexual Offences Court, establishing a Victims & Witnesses Commissioner and abolishing the ‘not proven' verdict.
“I want to build as much consensus as possible for this important legislation. Clearly there is not enough parliamentary support at this time for the proposal to enable a time-limited pilot of single-judge trials for cases of rape and attempted rape, so we will no longer pursue this.
“I remain concerned by the substantial evidence that juries may be influenced by rape myths and I will introduce amendments to the Bill to allow for more detailed research into jury deliberations. We will undertake further work with justice partners to agree how to challenge and reduce the impact of rape myths. This might include, for example, further interventions or educational resources for jurors and the wider public.
“I believe that the most prudent approach to jury reform, including the abolition of the ‘not proven' verdict, is to seek support for a model with two verdicts – 'guilty' and ‘not guilty' – 15 jurors, and a two-thirds majority requirement for conviction.
“I look forward to working with partners and colleagues across Parliament to deliver what I believe is a shared ambition to ensure victims and witnesses are placed at the heart of the justice system and treated with compassion.”
The impacts that victims face is not perturbed by geography, and therefore it is welcomed that the Devolved nations are also progressing policy that aims to strengthen the processes that affect victims of serious offences, such as sexual offences, and helps to review current legal systems. It is hoped that further analysis on these proposed amendments, and those that are found in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, will hope to create a better environment for Victims across the UK.
Read more information about the Bill here.
[1] https://www.gov.scot/publications/victims-witnesses-and-justice-reform-bill-factsheet/
