| 12 crime and justice |
|
|
| Crime |
| 12.1 Contraventions of Scottish criminal law
are divided for statistical purposes into crimes and offences, crimes generally being the
more serious. The detailed classifications of crimes and offences used in the criminal
statistics collected by the Scottish Office Home Department (SOHD) contain over 350 items.
For a description of what is included in the categories used in the tables in this
section, see statistical bulletin CrJ/1998/2. |
| 12.2 The statistics of crime recorded by the
police do not reveal the full incidence of crime committed, since not all crimes are
reported to the police and, of those that are, not all are subsequently recorded. The
resulting gap is sometimes referred to as the "dark figure" of crime. |
| 12.3 The results of the 1996 Scottish Crime
Survey (a survey of individuals’ and households’ experiences of victimisation)
suggests that, for those categories of crime that could be compared, an estimated 37 per
cent of incidents reported to interviewers were subsequently recorded by the police. The
survey also indicates that reporting varies widely between different types of crime. The
crimes most likely to be reported in 1995 were theft of a motor vehicle (100 per cent),
housebreaking (71 per cent), whereas less serious crimes such as vandalism (50 per cent)
were much less likely to be reported. The main reasons given for non-reporting were that
the incident was ‘too trivial’ or that ‘the police could have done
nothing’. There is some evidence, however that the extent of the ‘dark
figure’ has narrowed, since levels of reporting to the police in 1992 were higher
than they had been in 1987 which, in turn were higher than 1981. However the results of
the 1996 survey suggest that this trend has tailed off. |
| 12.4 Table 12A1 excludes offences
dealt with by the issue of fixed penalty tickets (about 440,000, mostly parking, in 1996).
Figures in this table are not comparable with statistics on action taken against offenders
(table 12A5 onwards) as one offence may lead to several persons being charged.
Equally one offender may be charged with several offences. Cases reported to the
Procurator Fiscal by agencies other than the 8 Scottish police forces (e.g. Department of
Health and Social Security ) are excluded from this table. |
| 12.5 The statistics on persons detained under
the Prevention of Terrorism Acts (table
12A9) are taken from the Home Office returns. |
|
| Prosecution Procedures |
| 12.6 Prosecutions in Scotland are almost
always undertaken by public prosecutors: the Lord Advocate (the principal law officer),
the Solicitor General and Advocate Deputes in the High Court and Procurator Fiscals (the
offices of the Lord Advocate) in lower courts. The police do not prosecute in Scotland.
Once they have cleared up a case, they report the details to the local Procurator Fiscal
who will decide whether to prosecute, and if so, in what level of court. |
|
| Court Procedures |
| 12.7 There are 2 types of court procedure in
Scotland: |
| i. solemn procedure (where cases are taken on
indictment and a Judge or sheriff sits with a jury); |
| ii. summary procedure (where the Sheriff,
stipendiary magistrate or JP sits alone). |
| 12.8 The most serious cases are tried at the
High Court (where cases are always undertaken under solemn procedure), or under solemn
procedure in Sheriff Courts. The vast majority of cases, however, are dealt with summarily
in Sheriff and District Courts, |
|
| Sentencing |
| 12.9 A wide range of sentences are available
to Scottish Courts when sentencing a person against whom a charge is proved. |
| Sentencing can depend on whether the accused
is: |
| i. an adult (21 or over); |
| ii. a young offender (aged 16 or over but
less than 21); |
| iii. a child; |
| iv. suffering from mental disorder (provided
the court is satisfied on the evidence of 2 medical practitioners that this is the case). |
| 12.10 Sentencing options include custodial
sentences (e.g. imprisonment or detention at a Young Offenders Institution), probation,
community service, absolute discharge, admonition (caution), deferral of sentence and
financial penalties (fines or payment of compensation to the victim) disqualification from
driving. |
| There are a number of alternatives to
prosecution, these include: |
| i. the conditional offer by the Procurator
Fiscal to the accused of a fixed penalty, introduced on 1 July 1983, for motor vehicle
offences. With effect from I April 1993, police officers may issue conditional offers of
fixed penalty to motorists for a range of specified offences; |
| ii. the vehicle rectification scheme, whereby
offenders with defective vehicles may sometimes avoid prosecution provided they restore
their vehicle to roadworthiness (introduced on I May 1984); |
| iii. procurator fiscal fines, introduced in
1988, which may be offered for certain minor non-vehicle offences, for example breach of
the peace or theft; |
| iv. the issue of a warning letter by the
Procurator Fiscal; |
| v. in suitable cases, diversion to Social
Work or other agencies; |
| vi. fixed penalties issued by the police and
traffic wardens, hitherto mainly for parking infringements, but now also for motor vehicle
offences. |
| 12.11 The statistics on drug seizures and
offenders, in table 12B2, relate to drugs controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, and
are taken from Home Office returns. In the statistics on persons found guilty of drug
offences, the offender is recorded in the year in which he or she was sentenced, which may
not necessarily be the year in which the offence was committed (tables 12A2 and 12A10). |
| 12.12 Direct sentenced receptions (i.e.
excluding fine defaulters) given in table 12B5 are counted differently
from custodial sentences given in tables
12B3. The two main reasons are as follows: |
| I. in the case of backdated sentences, if
after backdating it is found that the custodial sentence has expired, neither the warrant
nor the person sentenced will be taken to prison and thus a reception will not be counted
though the sentence will be included in the court statistics; |
| ii. if a person is given one or more
custodial sentences on each of 2 separate charges from the same court, on the same day,
this will be counted as 2 custodial sentences in court statistics, but only one direct
sentenced reception. |
|
| Civil Justice |
| 12.13 The Court of Session is the Supreme
Civil Court in Scotland. It consists of 26 Judges and is divided into 2 parts, the Inner
House and the Outer House. Apart from case excluded by statute (law), any cause may be
initiated and any judgement of a lower court may be appealed against in the Court of
Session. With a few exceptions, all causes initiated in the Court of Session begin in the
Outer House. Appeals are heard in the Inner House. |
| 12.14 The Central Office of the Court is
responsible for the administration of the Court’s business. It has 2 departments: |
| i. the general department (which deals,
broadly, with causes where there is a defender in the action e.g. divorce); |
| ii. the petition department (which deals with
causes where the authority of the court is sought for a certain course of action e.g.
bankruptcy). |
| 12.15 The Sheriff Court is the principal
local Court of civil as well as criminal jurisdiction in Scotland. For administrative
purposes the 49 courts are grouped into six sheriffdoms each covering an area of Scotland
and each presided over by a Sheriff Principal. There are 106 resident and floating
sheriffs. Its civil jurisdiction for general litigation is wide and generally similar to
that of the Court of Session. The ordinary cause procedure is used for, amongst other
things, actions involving sums in excess of £1,500 and family actions. The summary cause
provides a simplified procedure for a range of actions with a limit of £1,500 for actions
raised in respect of payment of money and for recovery of possession of heritable
property. Small claims procedure (a type of summary cause) was introduced in 1988 to
provide a simple, quick and informal method of dealing with actions of up to the value of
£750. |
| The sheriff also deals with quasijudicial and
administrative business. |
|
| Liquor Licensing |
| 12.16 The administration of liquor licensing
in Scotland is the responsibility of licensing boards, which are composed of elected
members of local authorities. The law on liquor licensing is set out in the Licensing
(Scotland) Act 1976. |
| 12.17 Part III of the Law Reform
(Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1990 introduced changes to liquor licensing law
in Scotland which took effect on I January 1991. The main reforms included the
introduction of the children’s certificate which permits children under 14 to
accompany adults for a meal in public houses and hotels, which, in the board’s view,
represent a suitable environment. |
| 12.18 Boards have also been able, from 1
January 1991, to grant extensions of permitted hours for public houses on Sunday
afternoons. Tighter criteria were also introduced in relation to the grant of regular
extensions to permitted hours. From December 1994, off-sales premises have been allowed to
open on Sunday afternoons. |
| 12.19 The Licensing (Amendment) (Scotland)
Act 1996, which came into force on 21 October 1996, introduced further changes to the law
and requires licensing boards to attach conditions to a liquor licence aimed specifically
at protecting the health and safety of those attending certain events on licensed
premises. |
|
| Fire Service |
| 12.20 Fire authorities in Scotland, for the
purposes of the Fire Service Act 1947, correspond to the old Regional and Islands Councils
prior to reorganisation. It is their duty to make provision for firefighting purposes in
their areas. The regions of Strathclyde, Grampian, Tayside, Dumfries and Galloway, Fife
and Central maintain their own individual fire brigades. Joint boards have been created
for the Regions of Lothian and Borders and for Highland Region with the 3 Island areas of
Orkney Shetland and the Western Isles. These boards run joint fire brigades. |
| 12.21 The duties of the Scottish Fire Service
Inspectorate of The Scottish Office Home Department include the inspection of fire
brigades, fire certification of Crown premises and advising the Secretary of State of
operational, technical and organisational aspects of Fire Service matters. |
