Part 5 of the CJ&L Bill - Criminal justice
Provisions within Part 5 take forward a range of criminal justice reforms.
Priorities
The Bill increases the maximum age able to sit on criminal juries from 65 to 70. We are also making changes to rules on exemptions and both these changes will increase the pool of available jurors. Provisions are included that will permit the police to close down premises associated with human exploitation.
The Bill makes a number of improvements to the operation of Sexual Offences Prevention Orders and Foreign Travel Orders. It also includes provisions that will provide statutory authority for Audit Scotland to prevent and detect fraud and crime through "data matching" along with permitting public bodies to share information for the purpose of also detecting fraud.
The Bill also includes provisions that will improve how courts can instruct compensation to be paid by an offender to their victims and their families.
Other measures
Provisions that will:
- give an express power for the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to request assistance in their investigations from foreign jurisdictions;
- make changes that reduce bureaucracy and assist the SCDEA and the police when undertaking surveillance operations;
- confirm the long term status of the Public Defence Solicitors Office;
- place the ex gratia miscarriage of justice compensation scheme on a statutory footing;
- increase flexibility of the Scottish Government to provide funding for victim organisations; and
- make changes to the Police Act 1997 to improve disclosure of relevant information in criminal record checks.