The Scottish Government

VWTC/02/05

VULNERABLE WITNESSES ACT IMPLEMENTATION STEERING GROUP

TRAINING AND COMMUNICATIONS SUB-GROUP

GUIDANCE FOR PRACTITIONERS ON THE NEEDS OF WITNESSES WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

1. At the meeting of the Project Steering Group for the guidance on taking evidence on commission and the use of a supporter on 14 January there was discussion about whether these pieces of guidance could contain a chapter on the needs of witnesses with special needs. It was agreed that this would not be appropriate but that the Victims and witnesses unit would consider further how this issue might be addressed.

2. The Victims and Witnesses Unit subsequently contacted ENABLE who had raised the point at the meeting to explore the possibility that ENABLE might produce a stand alone piece of guidance for inclusion in the Vulnerable Witnesses Act guidance pack. And in addition a short précis of that guidance which would be included in each individual piece of guidance to be contained in the pack. The timescale for producing such guidance would however, be very tight.

3. ENABLE has yet to formally respond to this suggestion but whether or not ENABLE takes this on Members' views are invited on the principle of going down this route and, if agreed, views on how this project might be tied in with the ENABLE project for an interactive DVD as discussed at item 4 above are also sought.

SEJD

Victims and Witnesses Unit

February 2005

ANNEX

Dear Catherine

I refer to the discussion at the Project Steering Group on the draft guidance on taking evidence on commission and the use of a supporter on 14 January about whether the guidance on taking evidence on commission should contain material on training for interviewing people with special needs.

We reached the conclusion at that meeting that it would not be appropriate to do that but agreed that I would consider how the needs of people with special needs who come into contact with the justice system as witnesses might be addressed through guidance on the Vulnerable Witnesses act.

In our subsequent telephone conversation I sounded you out about the possibility that Enable, possibly working with other agencies might be able to pull together material which could be "stand alone" in our proposed guidance pack as well as a short piece for inclusion in each individual piece of guidance which would make up the pack.

We envisage that the main material would alert practitioners in the justice system to the need to work in ways that are more responsive and sensitive to people with a variety of special needs vIt might provide examples of best practice as to how to explain to people with special needs what might be required of them as a witness, what the special measures would involve, dos and don'ts of interviewing people with special needs and point to where training on this in particular area would be available.

The short paragraph in each individual piece of guidance might be by way of a signpost to the "stand alone" material in the pack with the aim of alerting the reader that they must keep the needs of people with special needs in mind in their dealings with them. This could be incorporated in a statement concerning the promotion of equality and the tackling of discrimination.

Any work undertaken would need to complement that already done by COPFS and SCS on promoting equality, and take account of what guidance and training is already provided to practitioners such as judges and sheriffs, advocates and lawyers.

These are our initial thoughts but we would like to invite Enable working with others, as appropriate, to consider if this is a project which Enable might wish to take on and develop and, if so, to propose a specification for the work bearing in mind that the guidance pack will relate to the special measures and will be aimed at a wide range of practitioners beyond those in the legal profession, such as the police, social workers, support organisations and other statutory and voluntary agencies. Any proposals should, of course, be costed.

We look forward to receiving your views on this and would be happy to discuss this further with you if that would be helpful.

Yours sincerely

W J MOORE