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SMARTER JUSTICE, SAFER COMMUNITIES
SUMMARY JUSTICE REFORM - NEXT STEPS >>>
CONCLUSION: HOW WE WILL DELIVER THIS
AGENDA
5. INTRODUCTION
5.1 Delivering this agenda involves
changing the law in a number of key areas, notably in
relation to the structures and procedures of the courts. We
are committed to legislation in the lifetime of this
Parliament.
5.2 But success in delivery is critically
dependent on delivering change which takes into account the
interests of key stakeholders. We therefore propose early
and formal engagement with those directly interested in
unification of court administration. Our proposal to phase
unification gives time to consider in detail staffing and
estate issues specific to court unification in each
individual sheriffdom.
5.3 Success also involves engagement with
stakeholders to ensure sensible and workable changes in
areas of good practice, like arrangements for the
recruitment and training of our lay justices.
5.4 And we also recognise the need to take
into account the community perspective. Statistical
evaluation and monitoring are important, and we will
develop collaboratively and put in place ways of assessing
what our changes are achieving in terms of improved case
handling and impact on reoffending. But we will also
develop and maintain enhanced engagement with communities,
to see whether we are achieving what we stated in the
introduction to be our prime goal - confident communities
which believe that crime at all levels is being taken
seriously.
The next few months
5.5 Where there is an obvious need to set
up collaborative work - for example, with stakeholders
interested in court unification and with those (principally
district court clerks and JPs) who have a strong interest
in the reshaping of lay justice - we will do so as quickly
as possible after this paper is launched.
5.6 We also recognise that the summary
justice agenda impacts on stakeholders in widely differing
ways. The public at large has an overriding interest in the
direction of travel. But discussions on the best way of
reforming court procedure (for instance) tend to be of
particular interest to stakeholders who engage formally
with the courts, including the defence.
5.7 We therefore intend to bring
stakeholders together before the summer to map the areas
where further joint work would be useful, and to agree how
it should be taken forward. And we propose to do some early
work to create ways in which communities can get engaged in
the development and implementation of our proposals.
Continuing work
5.8 Our proposals will develop a court
system which is simpler and easier for court users and the
wider community to understand, and will invest in lay
justices, one powerful expression of the community's place
at the heart of the justice system.
5.9 With that new structure we need to
deliver effective problem-solving justice for the high
volume of minor crime which comes to court but does not
merit imprisonment.
5.10 We have learned lessons from our own
problem solving courts - which stress a collaborative,
multi-disciplinary, problem solving approach to address the
underlying issues of individuals appearing in that court.
They also feature sustained follow through on the part of
the court to ensure accountability and monitor progress. We
have also learned lessons from recent consultations on
anti-social behaviour, reducing reoffending and the
Children's Hearings system as well as developing our
experience of problem solving courts dealing with volume
crime in other jurisdictions. Some of the key elements of
success in dealing with lower level offending seem to
be:
- Immediacy: getting people into court
and onto disposals quickly was vital for community
confidence, and greatly reduced the chance that
offenders would 'fail'.
- Visibility: the justice system is a
public service and should let those around know what it
is doing (although it is obviously vital not to
prejudice judicial independence by discussing
individual cases or judgements). Similar issues came
out strongly in Phase 1 of the Children's Hearings
consultation.
- Accountability: good information about
outcomes was vital, and should be shared widely. And
compliance with court disposals should be expected and
enforced.
- Active community involvement: through
a range of roles, often as volunteers.
5.11 The work already conducted on
anti-social behaviour has highlighted the importance of
supporting community members by delivering justice which
helps offenders to change.
5.12 Much of the answer is covered
earlier. There is scope to take more minor crime out of
court and deal with it through alternatives to prosecution,
avoiding the stigma of a criminal record. This will free up
some more system capacity. Getting cases to court more
quickly, with better information for the judge when he or
she first sees the case, will also help. And bringing
together advice services and those who most need them in
the court setting will also help.
5.13 But smarter processing is only part
of the answer. We recognise the need to roll out affordable
improvements to all courts, particularly by making more
effective use of resources already in the system, such as
lay justices. In all the models of problem-solving court,
increasing emphasis is placed on the importance of the
judge's role. The success so far of the drug and youth
courts has been substantially due to the willingness of
sheriffs to become much more actively engaged in monitoring
the progress of the offenders whom they convict. We need to
consider with our judiciary about how this principle might
be rolled out more widely.
5.14 And the system flexibility offered by
sheriffdom by sheriffdom unification of court
administration offers opportunities to design new forms of
court which bring together local services in a different
way to tackle particular concentrations of offending and
deprivation.
Joined-up working
5.15 This agenda is closely linked with -
and dependent on - that for Reducing Reoffending. We have
started to rebuild community confidence from the bottom up
with our investment in a robust response to anti-social
behaviour. The accountability of the justice system to
communities is not just a matter of engaging lay people in
designing the future, and in new roles at the heart of the
system. It is also about ensuring swift action where
sentenced offenders do not comply with community based
disposals, so that communities can see that reinvestment in
damaged localities is not a theory, but a reality.
5.16 We recognise the need to ensure that
these two agendas progress together. We have in place the
National Criminal Justice Board, which focuses on the
process between caution and charge and disposal, and are
now setting up the national advisory body to oversee more
joined up delivery of services to sentenced offenders. Key
agencies will be involved in both. We will ensure that the
targets set by these two bodies are complementary, and that
they work together to ensure that we get better at handling
cases, but also much better at dealing with offenders as
individuals.
Conclusion
5.17 Delivering better summary justice is
an area of prime concern to the Executive and to the people
of Scotland. We are most grateful to the McInnes Committee
for the thoughtful and wide ranging work in their review,
and to all those who have contributed to the consultation
process. We have set out above how we will reform the
system.
5.18 But delivering better justice is not
just a matter for the Executive. All the agencies and
individuals involved in delivering the justice service
share responsibility for more effective joint working, and
for a changed culture which focuses on better outcomes for
individual offenders. We are greatly encouraged by the
evidence we see that the issues are being tackled at local
level.
5.19 This is a Partnership commitment, in
every sense. Taking it forward fulfils a commitment in our
Partnership for a Better Scotland.21 But delivering better justice on the ground involves
practical partnerships - between the Executive and lead
agencies, between those agencies at local level, and
between government and communities. That is the key
challenge on which we seek to deliver. This paper is one
step - albeit a vital one - to realising our goal.
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