Law Society welcomes criminal justice and disability report

The Criminal Justice Disability Project: Final Report makes 76 recommendations to promote and enable accessibility of service across the criminal justice sector in Scotland for people with disabilities.

Alison Atack, president of the Law Society, said: “Our justice system must be accessible to everyone in Scotland, and a project that looks to improve the experience of people with disabilities in the criminal justice system helps to achieve this crucial goal.

“Across the wide range of recommendations, tangible outcomes have already been delivered in areas such as awareness of hate crime, identifying premises’ physical barriers to access, improving the language and accessibility of correspondence and other materials, juror participation, training and sharing of best practice across the criminal justice system.

“As our justice system uses technology to a greater degree in the years ahead, there will be a range of new opportunities to improve accessibility. The collaborative approach taken by this project will provide an excellent foundation for this continuing work.”