The Scottish Government

1. Portfolio/Number/Name:COPFS/T3 Review of summary justice - NEW

2. Programme/Activity:

Reform of Summary Justice System -speedier and more efficient disposal of cases by making increased use of alternatives to prosecution and by trying some cases as sheriff summary trials (in which a sheriff sits without a jury) rather than sheriff solemn trials (in which the sheriff sits with a jury).

3. Efficiency

3.1 Current target; £m

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

Cash

0

0

0

Time

0

0

0.6

3.2 Efficiencies delivered; £m

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

Cash

0

-

-

Time

0

-

-

4. Accountable Officer for delivery

Norman McFadyen, Crown Agent & Chief Executive

5. Project Manager

Bill McQueen, Deputy Chief Executive

6. EGDD Portfolio Manager

Angus Gardner

7. Description of efficiency and actions to be taken

7.1 What is the efficiency improvement? How will the efficiencies be made?

Alternatives to Prosecution will deliver efficiencies by using fixed penalties rather than prosecuting through the court.

Trying cases as sheriff summary cases will deliver efficiencies within the Justice system. Sheriff summary cases, unlike sheriff solemn cases, do not involve the use of a jury. As a result, cases can be quicker and less resource-intensive to complete. Reducing the number of sheriff solemn cases will therefore allow the courts system to process other cases more quickly.

The majority of efficiencies from the reform of the summary justice system will be delivered by the Crown Office, but a proportion will be delivered by the Justice Dept. for which a separate technical note (J/T6) exists.

7.2 What are the main actions that are needed to secure the delivery of this efficiency improvement?

Increased use of alternatives to prosecution

This requires legislation to raise the maximum level of a fiscal fine to £500, and to introduce fiscal compensation orders. This will be managed by the summary justice review team (see Technical Note J/T6.) There will also need to be guidance to procurators fiscal on how to use these alternatives to prosecution. This will be prepared by COPFS.

Hearing cases in sheriff summary rather than sheriff solemn

This requires legislation in order to increase the sentencing powers of a sheriff sitting summarily. The legislation will be managed by the summary justice review team (see Technical Note J/T6).

The Criminal Proceedings etc. (Reform) (Scotland) Bill was introduced in the Scottish Parliament on 27 February 2006 and is expected to receive Royal Assent during the first half of 2007. As the change in sheriff's summary sentencing powers will not come into force until later in 2007-08, the efficiencies delivered during 2007-08 will be less than those one might expect in a full year.

8. Associated costs

8.1 Are there any development or redundancy costs associated with the delivery of this efficiency?

There are no development or redundancy costs associated with the delivery of this efficiency.

9. Measurement

9.1 What are the inputs that will be measured?

For Alternatives to Prosecution, the legal resources required to prosecute cases. The expectation is that the justice system will be able to process cases more quickly and effectively.

The inputs for the efficiencies delivered through changing the sentencing powers of sheriffs will be measured each year through changes in the level of witness expenditure and the level of staffing on sheriff solemn cases.

9.2 What are the outputs that will be measured

Increased use of alternatives to prosecution

Fiscal compensation orders ( FCOs), £200 fiscal fines and £500 fiscal fines are all new types of sanction which will be available to procurators fiscal. These new alternatives to prosecution will be applied in cases which would otherwise have gone to court.

The number of cases which are taken out of the courts by the use of fiscal compensation orders and £200 and £500 fiscal fines should therefore be the same as the number of these alternatives which are offered, minus the number of these cases which come back to court as a result of a challenge by the defendant.

We will therefore measure the number of FCOs, £200 fiscal fines and £500 fiscal fines which are offered by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. We will not include FCOs which are offered in conjunction with another sanction, since the use of these FCOs will not take cases out of the courts.

In 2007 the law will be changed so that people who are offered fiscal fines have to actively challenge them in order for their case to be heard before a court (at present, their case will come to court if they do not respond at all to an offer of a fiscal fine). We expect that this will reduce the number of fiscal fine cases which come to court, but we will measure the number of challenges to fiscal fines, and also the number of challenged cases which are then marked for "no further proceedings". The number of challenges, minus the number of "no further proceedings cases" should tell us how many FCO and fiscal fine cases end up in court.

Of the fiscal fine cases which come to court, some will of course result from fiscal fines in the £25-£100 range. In order to calculate the proportion of court cases which arise from FCOs, £200 fiscal fines and £500 fiscal fines, we may have to make estimates based on research in selected procurator fiscal offices.

The savings we achieve can be calculated by taking the number of cases which are diverted from the courts through these alternatives to prosecution, and multiplying by the cost saving for each case. The intended annual savings of £0.64m assume that 16,000 cases will be taken out of the courts, and that imposing and enforcing a fiscal fine is at least £40 cheaper than trying someone in the District Court. The estimate of 16,000 cases is based upon parallel case marking exercises undertaken by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, in which procurators fiscal marked real cases as though FCOs and the higher levels of fiscal fine were options which were available to them.

Transferring cases from sheriff solemn to sheriff summary

The output for efficiencies is the reduction in volume and cost of sheriff solemn cases.

We will measure the number of cases in 2007-08 marked for trial in sheriff summary courts which would previously have been tried in sheriff solemn courts. We will do this by measuring the increase in the number of sheriff summary cases which receive sentences of between three months and a year (sheriffs can impose sentences of six or nine months in a small number of instances at present, but the number of cases for which these sentences are given should increase significantly in 2007-08).

We will use 2007-08 data on the costs of court cases to assess how much money is saved by trying cases in sheriff summary rather than sheriff solemn. We will use modified average costs, on the basis that cases which are pushed down to sheriff summary are likely to be less expensive than the average sheriff solemn case.

Example of efficiency calculation

If we estimate that 550 cases a year are tried in the sheriff summary courts in 2007-08 instead of in sheriff solemn courts, we multiply 550 by the estimated savings for each case.

In 2004-05 the difference in cost between a sheriff solemn trial and a sheriff summary trial was £7,200. Half of this is £3,600 - this better reflects the disparity in costs for the sorts of cases which will move from sheriff solemn.

If the difference in cost in 2007-08 is £7,000, half of this would be £3,500. Of this £3,500, £3,000 accrues to Crown Office, while £500 relates to time releasing efficiencies in court time (covered by Justice technical note J/T6).

The efficiencies would therefore be 550 X £3,000 = £1.65m per annum.

Total target annual efficiencies overall are £1.65m + £0.64m = £2.29m but will only begin to deliver in the last quarter of 2007/08.

9.3 What is the baseline for inputs and outputs?

The baseline for inputs and outputs is the costs and numbers for cases in 2004/05.

Since the legislation required for the planned efficiencies will not come into force until 2007, no efficiencies will be realised during 2005-06 and 2006-07.

Baseline figures for the total number of cases being heard in the courts in 2004-05 will provide a further indication as to whether these measures are successful in reducing the number of cases heard in the courts, or in reducing the number of cases heard in sheriff solemn proceedings.

10. Quality cross-check

10.1 What quality indicators are being used to ensure that quality of service is maintained or improved?

We will be monitoring the impact of the change in sheriff summary sentencing powers to see if there is any evidence of "sentence drift" (where increased sentencing powers means that longer sentences than before get imposed for the same offences). If "sentence drift" has occurred, then we will need to modify our calculations to take account of this. We are not currently expecting sentence drift to occur - there is no evidence of it having happened when the sentencing powers of sheriffs sitting with a jury were increased from three years to five years.

A proportion of the efficiencies gained from transferring cases from solemn to summary justice will be delivered by the Justice Dept., and this is detailed in Technical note J/T6.

11. Monitoring

11.1 What are the arrangements for monitoring the delivery of efficiencies?

Data will be monitored using statistics gathered by Crown Office and the Scottish Courts Service, much of which is already published in Costs, Sentencing Profiles and the Scottish Criminal Justice System. Relevant figures will be gathered each year from 2004-05 in order to assess ongoing trends.

The legislation required for the planned efficiencies is not expected to come into force until December 2007.

12. Reporting

12.1 What are the arrangements for reporting the delivery of efficiencies?

The efficiencies will be assessed once detailed figures for criminal proceedings in 2007-08 are available. They will be reported as part of the Executive's reporting of its overall efficiencies.

13. Dependencies

13.1 Explain if your efficiencies are dependent on legislation or other structural changes being achieved.

These efficiencies require legislation. The Criminal Proceedings etc. (Reform) (Scotland) Bill was introduce in the Scottish Parliament on 27 February 2006 and is expected to receive Royal Assent during the first half of 2007. If the change in sheriff's summary sentencing powers does not come into force until later in 2007-08, the efficiencies delivered during 2007-08 will be reduced accordingly.

14. Use of efficiencies

14.1 How are the efficiencies released from improvement activity being used to improve front-line services?

The efficiencies will allow Crown Office and courts employees to spend more time addressing other criminal cases and priorities. The overall result should be that the criminal justice system can process cases more quickly and effectively.