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INFORMATION ABOUT CHILD, YOUNG AND VULNERABLE ADULT WITNESSES TO INFORM DECISION-MAKING IN THE LEGAL PROCESS GOOD PRACTICE GUIDANCE
INTRODUCTION
1 The purpose of this guidance is to advise police officers on best practice standards in recording information about child, young person and vulnerable adult witnesses through the standard prosecution report (SPR) in order to inform decision making about those witnesses throughout legal proceedings.
2 The guidance is in response to recommendation 3 of the report of the Lord Advocate's Working Group on Child Witness Support which was:
- that in order to ensure information about young witnesses is available to inform decision-making in the legal process:
- Systematic procedures should be developed by all those involved in the criminal justice process and children's hearing court proceedings to gather and record background information about the child witness. This is likely to require the development of special forms and the revision of case discussion and case conference procedures.
- Multi-agency training should emphasise the important contribution of background information about the child to planning for the trial or children's hearing court proceedings and the management of the child's evidence at court.
3 It is important that an assessment of a child, young person or vulnerable adult's needs as a witness is made to ensure that the child, young or vulnerable adult witness receives appropriate support. However, recommendation 3 was aimed at all those involved in the criminal justice process and children's hearings court proceedings and, as such, this guidance seeks to clarify the role of the police within this broader process. The guidance seeks to be realistic about what information can be captured through the SPR and to establish a balance between form filling and other police duties.
4 This guidance has been developed by the Scottish Executive's Child Witness Support Implementation Group, comprising the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration, and the Scottish Court Service, in partnership with ACPOS and following extensive consultation with agencies involved with child witnesses. It reflects a growing commitment to victims and witnesses within legal proceedings. It has been developed within the context of a major revision of the SPR, which will take around 18 months to implement, and also the implementation of the Vulnerable Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2004 which will require identification
of child, young and vulnerable adult witnesses as early as possible in all
legal proceedings.
5 Although this guidance is published as part of the Supporting Child Witnesses Guidance Pack, it also covers adult vulnerable witnesses for whom similar information will be required when the provisions of the Vulnerable Witnesses (Scotland) Act are applied to them in 2006. The impact of the guidance will be monitored and reviewed by the Scottish Executive, in partnership with ACPOS, COPFS and SCRA, in relation to the use of the information by procurators fiscal and children's reporters and in relation to implementation of the Vulnerable Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2004.
6 This guidance provides a series of prompts as to the type of information which would be useful to procurators fiscal and children's reporters when processing cases and making decisions about child, young and vulnerable adult witnesses in legal proceedings. The prompts outlined in this document offer a means to ensure that information is available to those who require it and that unnecessary repeated assessment or questioning by those with different interests in the child, young person or vulnerable adult as a witness does not occur.
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