Angela Constance

Justice Secretary Angela Constance told MSPs that, having listened to the cross-party Criminal Justice Committee and a wide range of other views, a plan to enable a time-limited pilot of “single-judge trials” for rape and attempted rape cases will no longer be pursued and has been removed from the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform Bill.

Ms Constance said: “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.”

Criminal silk Tony Lenehan KC, Vice-Dean of Faculty, said: “The original suggestion of moving towards a juryless system generated a very great deal of negative feeling both within our experienced membership and throughout Scotland’s legal community. Citizen juries are a cornerstone of democracy, and confer robust confidence in the verdicts they deliver.

“We appreciate that the Cabinet Secretary for Justice had many competing arguments to consider, some from quarters which naturally engender great sympathy, and we applaud her considered and pragmatic approach to this important question.

“The government maintain their focus on the removal of the ‘not proven’ verdict. When that happens, it is vital that the safeguard which the third verdict represented is replaced by a balancing measure of equal value. The original bill acknowledged that, and we welcome the Cabinet Secretary’s continued commitment to it, given in the form of the proposed 10:5 majority required for conviction.

“We look forward to assisting where we can in the further assessment and progress of this Bill, where it represents ways to refine and improve our Criminal Justice System.”

John Mulholland, convener of the Law Society’s Public Policy Committee, commented: “We’ve been calling for these parts of the bill to be scrapped for many months, and are pleased to see the Scottish government acting on the widespread concerns that have been raised.

“Juries for serious crimes are a cornerstone of our criminal justice system. Solicitors working in criminal law have been deeply concerned about this proposal that lacks detail and supporting evidence being imposed on cases involving real people.

“Our criminal justice system is finely balanced and even small changes can have unintended negative consequences. Retaining the size of juries is also a positive step supporting the integrity of our system, though we remain concerned at the likely scrapping of the third verdict.

“It’s unfortunate that we’ve had to wait so long for this decision to be reached, as so much time has been spent on this plan at the expense of other complex parts of the bill. We will now be turning our full attention to the remaining concerning provisions.

“There remain a number of positive elements of this legislation which we support, including around the anonymity of complainers in sexual offence cases, and an increased focus on the value of trauma informed practice.”