Court backlog set to reach 50,000

Overall, there are 42,451 outstanding trials and a further 6,542 cases deemed likely to come to trial. The backlog is double that of pre-pandemic levels. There were 18,355 outstanding trials at the end of the 2019/20 year. 

A Scottish government spokesperson said: “To mitigate the court backlog caused by necessary public health restrictions, innovations such as remote jury centres in cinemas have been used for the most serious criminal trials, while most civil work is being dealt with online or virtually.

“In addition, we will see an increased court capacity from September, which includes the expansion of remote jury centres and a daily increase of four additional High Courts, two additional Sheriff Solemn Courts and up to ten Sheriff Summary Courts.

“We committed to investing £50 million this year to the Justice Recover, Renew and Transform programme to drive further reform and help increase the throughput of court cases, which is the single biggest way to reduce remand numbers.”