CRIMINAL! Prosecutors’ backlog of 17,000 cases
Offenders set to walk free as trials risk missing deadlines
HUNDREDS of criminals in Scotland could dodge justice as the backlog of cases waiting in prosecutors’ in-trays reaches a ‘staggering’ all-time record.
The number of crime reports which have been written up by police and filed to the Crown Office but still await a decision on whether to prosecute or not has now soared to almost 17,000 for the first time.
Senior legal sources said it was inevitable that cases, including serious crimes, will ‘fall’ as decisions to prosecute are required within a certain time frame – in many cases 12 months.
Analysis by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) shows that the backlog is now so great it would not
‘It’s inevitable that many may never make it to court’
be cleared even if no new crimes were reported in Scotland for over a month. One prosecution source said staff were ‘sinking’ under the number of cases while Donald Findlay, KC, one of the country’s leading criminal defence advocates, added he was ‘taken aback’ by the case backlog.
Overall the number of so-called ‘unmarked’ cases has soared – doubling from 8,400 just seven years ago and up more than 500 since this summer.
Surprisingly, however, the corresponding number of police crime reports passed to prosecutors has fallen by tens of thousands.
Politicians said the figures illustrated that Scotland’s beleaguered prosecution service was ‘overwhelmed’. Despite this, its head, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain, KC, has had her time occupied in recent weeks with her own court appearances in connection with questions over the legality of the SNP’s planned new independence referendum.
COPFS said on Friday that the current number of ‘unmarked’ cases was 16,592, representing ‘six weeks of “marking” work’.
Meanwhile, the number of cases reported to COPFS, mainly by police but including those sent by other agencies such as the Health and Safety Executive, fell from 253,000 in 2015 to 149,000 last year.
A COPFS source said: ‘Cases have been farmed out to local offices from the central marking hubs, such as Edinburgh and Glasgow, in an attempt to tackle the backlog but it’s just going up and up. Staff are just sinking under the number of cases and it’s inevitable many cases may never make it to court.’
Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Jamie Greene said: ‘These figures are absolutely staggering. It is clear that Crown Office are completely overwhelmed and that has serious implications for delivering justice.’
Mr Findlay said: ‘While I am taken aback at the number of unmarked cases, I am not really surprised that there is a large backlog, as the justice system is creaking all over the place in Scotland. It is understaffed and under pressure right across the board.’
Another senior solicitor said: ‘It is incredible and terrifying that 16,000 cases lie unmarked.’
A COPFS spokesman said: ‘We are strengthening our resource in this area to reduce the number of unmarked cases at any time.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Justice agencies have been clear that recovery from the impacts of the pandemic will take several years and initiatives are under way to tackle backlogs.’