Lord Advocate warns backlog of court cases will only get worse

The Lord Advocate has warned the coronavirus pandemic will result in further delays to the justice system as it emerged 49 homicide cases and 465 of serious sexual assault are awaiting trial.

James Wolffe QC said the backlog of thousands of cases was only going to get worse when he was questioned by MSPs about the impact of the postponement of trials during the outbreak.

Appearing in front of Holyrood’s justice committee, Scotland’s most senior law officer pledged that those who spit on police officers would be dealt with “robustly” although he was unable to commit to rank-andfile officers’ demands for those accused of “Covid-19” assaults to be automatically remanded in custody.

MSPs heard that 717 cases which had been indicted were awaiting trial in the high court as of June 10.

“It follows inevitably that during a period where virtually no trials are able to take place across the system that the backlog has been increasing during this period,” Mr Wolffe said.

The head of Scotland’s prosecution service, Crown agent David Harvie, said that since March, an additional 21,000 summary complaints have been issued on top of the 18,319 already outstanding cases.

“Not all of those will end up being trials but that’s an indication of the number of complaints that have been served during the lockdown,” Mr Harvie said.

“Regrettably, throughout lockdown one of the truths is that crime has continued.”

James Wolffe QC