Between 2019/20 and 2023/24, 9,168 cases were dropped because they broke statutory time-bar limits or were delayed by other agencies.

John Logue, chief executive of the Crown Office, has now warned that ending the longer time limits that were brought in during the pandemic means prosecutors must indict around 2,000 cases by November, double the usual number.

The changes introduced in 2020 extended the solemn bail and solemn remand time-limits and are maintained in the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022.

After November 30, however, the extensions will expire. The time-bar between an accused’s first appearance on petition and trial will revert from 18 to 12 months. As for those accused on remand, the time limit until their trial will be reduced from 320 to 140 days. As a result, the Crown Office is indicting twice as many cases to the High Court as it normally would between now and November.

“We’re going to have to because the law says it has to be done,” Mr Logue told The Scotsman. “That’s incredibly difficult. I have concerns about our ability to do it, but we have no choice, we’re going to have to do it.

“The consequence for us of cases not being indicted because of the time-bar is unacceptable. The reality for us is we’re going to indict them all and that’s what we’ve set ourselves the task of doing this year. But there are conversations we are having – we’ve had to say to the courts, the police, the prisons and the defence that this is what the impact is going to be.”

He added: “The system is already at capacity, and not just the number of high courts, but the Faculty of Advocates, the number of lawyers doing criminal defence work – the system is operating at capacity. If you were to put another ten high courts in, where would you get the lawyers and judges?”