Ms Constance said she would listen to the concerns of the legal profession and MSPs about the proposals contained in the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill.

Holyrood’s Justice Committee was split on the proposal along party lines, with only the SNP endorsing juryless trials.

Ms Constance wrote to the committee, detailing plans for juryless trials. She had been asked to provide a timeline for the provisions of the bill.

She said the pilot would take place in the fourth quarter of 2028, following the implementation of a new sexual offences court in the fourth quarter of 2026.

She writes: “Our intention is that a baselining exercise will be carried out before the pilot is run. This exercise will look at cases that meet the same criteria as those that will be heard in the pilot, and will review them using the same evaluation questions that will be used for the pilot.”

Regarding opposition to the pilot, she says: “We note members’ views on the pilot and re-iterate our commitment to continuing to listen to the voices of members from all parties, as well as those of partners from across the justice system and of victims themselves.

“Juries play a key role in Scotland’s justice system, but there is a compelling body of evidence that rape myths may influence the decisions that jurors reach in sexual offence cases.

“That is a risk to the administration of justice, which could in turn undermine public confidence in juries.

“We believe it is important that we examine the use of juries in rape cases and try to better understand the impacts they have – a time-limited pilot enables us to do that.”

She also said the Scottish government would explore implementing a panel system, with two lay members sitting alongside the judge to decide on rape cases.

Simon Brown, vice-president of the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association (SSBA), said: “The SSBA are surprised that the Scottish government seem intent on proceeding with the pilot scheme for juryless trials in spite of the clear misgivings expressed by the justice committee.

“Their response to the justice committee’s report make it clear that significantly more information is needed before such a pilot could be considered, but with no coherent plan as to how such information will be obtained.”

He added: “They also continue to bang the drum about low conviction rates with misleading and meaningless comparisons to conviction rates for all cases.

“As was patiently explained to the committee, rapes are unusually complex cases that are very difficult to prove, often relying on a jury’s perception of who they believe with very little in the way of independent evidence. To compare these with a shoplifting case where an accused is seen on CCTV committing the offence is frankly insulting.

“To then double down and use conviction rates in a particular subset of rape trials, single charge accused cases, to justify dismantling the jury system for all rape cases is again misleading. The Scottish Government also conveniently ignores the deep-seated opposition of almost the entire legal profession to this proposal.

“Discussions in every bar common room across Scotland shows a virtually unanimous refusal to take part in such trials, and without the participation of the criminal bar, the pilot is doomed before it starts.”