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Feasibility Study for a victim and witness support service in Scotland

5 Remaining gaps

5.1 Agency-specific

5.1.1 In the preceding sections, needs were identified which did not fall within the responsibility of the Fiscal Service (and which were therefore excluded from specific actions within the proposed VAWSS). An attempt was made to identify the agency which should properly take responsibility for them. It is not the purpose of this study to provide a detailed proposal for the work on victim and witness issues for each agency, but nevertheless it may be helpful to identify the gaps in provision which fall within each agency boundary.

5.1.2 The police should ensure that:

• the "Reporting a Crime" leaflet is given out to all victims, in an appropriate form to take account of ethnic minority needs, children, people with learning difficulties, without fail;

• all victims of crime are dealt with courteously and sensitively, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, or the nature of the crime

5.1.3 The police and Procurator Fiscal Service should jointly ensure that they are able to provide full information about possible sources of support for victims and witnesses of crime. In addition to providing basic contact details, information leaflets and the opportunity to talk through the options with a member of staff who is familiar with the different organisations, would be helpful.

5.1.4 The Scottish Courts Service should ensure that existing Charter statements are met in all courts, notably, to ensure that:

• All witnesses are dealt with courteously (the Witness Service will greatly assist in this, but input from the court staff will also be needed);
• Guidance leaflets are readily available and on display, in appropriate languages and versions to suit the needs of the population of court users;
• Lists of business to be heard each day are displayed clearly on notice-boards or electronic systems;
• Witness rooms (both prosecution and defence) are clean and comfortable, with current reading materials, toys, etc.

5.1.5 The Procurator Fiscal Service and Scottish Courts Service jointly should ensure that:

• Cases involving children are fast-tracked

5.1.6 The Scottish Prison Service should ensure that measures to prevent prison inmates from intimidating victims and witnesses by letter or telephone are in place, and that they are effective.

5.1.7 The Scottish Court Service, and Crown Office, may wish to extend the range of leaflets available, and to develop leaflets which are easier to read, more informative, and more attractive. In addition, a range of attractive and informative posters should be considered.

5.1.8 The Police should consider extending their policy of having a Family Liaison Officer for the most serious crimes, to having a named contact person for all crimes; however, to limit the resource implications of this, it might be practical for the contact officer to write to the victim when the report is sent to the Fiscal, formally handing over to the Fiscal as the main contact from that point.

5.1.9 The Scottish Courts Service may wish to consider extending the range of issues addressed in the Court Users Charter and Joint Statement on Crown Witnesses, to cover the following:

• Wherever possible, to ensure that toilets and refreshment facilities are accessible from prosecution witness rooms without entering public areas;

• Wherever possible, to ensure that additional witness rooms are available, for people who feel uncomfortable in the general witness room, or who are vulnerable in any way - and to ensure that witnesses are aware they can ask for such a room;

• To ensure that private rooms are available for the use of, and offered to, the families of murder victims throughout the trial;

• To allocate seating in the court room for victims and witnesses, who wish to hear the rest of the trial after giving evidence, and for the families of murder victims;

• To ensure that proceedings can be heard adequately throughout the court room, if necessary through the use of effective amplification and sound distribution systems;

• To provide a transcript of the trial to the victim/family of murder victim at low or no cost (solemn cases only);

• To make the opportunity available for victims and witnesses in High Court cases to hear the summing up without being present in the court room - through an audio link, for example, to a private room.

5.1.10 The Law Society of Scotland should be invited to institute vetting of prospective defence precognition agents, increase training provision for them, and develop a code of conduct for them. The code of conduct should ensure that agents make appropriate prior arrangements, carry identification, and are required to make clear who they are, and what the purpose of the interview is. Witnesses should be given the opportunity to choose the location of the interview, and to have another person, of their choice, present. Precognition agents should provide confirmation that witnesses' whereabouts will not be divulged to the accused, his family, or other defence witnesses.

5.1.11 The Law Society of Scotland could also be invited to develop, or review, a code of conduct for defence counsel in Court. This could include the following:

• To deal with victims and witnesses courteously, sensitively, in a non-threatening way, using straight-forward language, and according to individual need - for instance, speaking to children, people with disabilities, people with learning difficulties and people for whom English is not their first language with sensitivity, and without being patronising;

• To introduce themselves to witnesses before the trial begins

• To be flexible in their attitude towards reducing the formality of the court, use of CCTV or screens, and allowing a supporter in the court-room for all vulnerable witnesses.

5.1.12 The voluntary sector, providing support and information to victims and witnesses could be invited to work more closely together, and mechanisms could be established for ensuring effective representation for the voluntary organisations as a group on bodies such as the Victim Steering Group.

5.1.13 The Scottish Executive could also examine the mechanisms through which voluntary victim and witness support organisations are currently funded, and seek to ensure more equitable distribution of funding, perhaps based on measures of performance and benefit.

5.2 Beyond the Lord Advocate’s proposal

5.2.1 The starting point for this study has been to take a broad look at the needs of victims and witnesses, in order to compare these with current provision, and hence to identify the gaps which fall within the Fiscal Service and thereby to fall within the scope of the Lord Advocate’s proposal for a new victim and witness support service.

5.2.2 The identified needs of victims and witnesses, however go wider than the scope of the proposed VAWSS in the Fiscal Service, and require to be addressed.

5.2.3 From our examination of the needs which remain, four further initiatives are required:

• first, a mechanism at national level for developing strategic thinking on victim and witness issues, coordinate activity between the different statutory agencies of the criminal justice system, the judiciary and voluntary sector, in order to ensure that initiatives aimed at meeting victim and witness needs are coordinated and carry the support of all agencies involved;

• second, a guiding strategy for tackling victim and witness issues should be developed, supported by effective research and routine performance information;

• third, a national mechanism for providing information on sources of support to victims and witnesses before they come into contact with the criminal justice system (or after the criminal justice process has been completed);

• fourth, a national information base of cases disposed of, in order to provide information to victims downstream of the case disposal.

National coordinating and strategy group

5.2.4 To a large extent the existing Victim Steering Group is well positioned to tackle the first two of these functions, and indeed is already some way towards meeting them. However, the VSG lacks resources, and we therefore propose that, through the Justice Department of the Scottish Executive (which currently provides the secretariat for the VSG), resources are provided to accelerate the work of the Group. We see the VSG taking the role of encouraging and promoting best practice in victim and witness support throughout Scotland, based on a sound and objective information base of research and performance data. This national-level body would not detract from the VAWSS as proposed - rather it would provide a national overview of the needs, objectives and service standards which the VAWSS should seek to implement. To ensure close liaison between the VSG and the VAWSS, it will important that the overall manager of the VWSS at national level is represented on the VSG.

Mechanism for easy access to support information

5.2.5 One of the aspects of the service proposed by the Lord Advocate was that it should offer a one-stop service. As currently proposed, we see the VAWSS providing such a service for the duration of time the case is the responsibility of the Fiscal. Outside of this period, victims may have requirements for information or support before they contact the police, after they have contacted the police but before the case has been reported to the Fiscal, and or after the involvement of the Fiscal is complete.

5.2.6 Currently, victims and witnesses report that while there are means of gaining access to sources of information and support on victim and witness issues, these can be difficult to locate, and are not necessarily able to direct the caller to the most appropriate form of support to suit their needs. Some telephone help-lines do exist, but these are either poorly publicised, specific to one organisation, or focused on meeting the needs of the volunteers within the organisation rather than of the victims or witnesses themselves. The research in this study has indicated a strong need for a national, well-publicised, knowledgeable and sympathetic help-line to be established, which is independent of any single voluntary or statutory agency, and which can offer general advice to victims and witnesses, as well as making informed referrals to other agencies.

5.2.7 The help-line would tackle two identified gaps in current service provision - an outreach to those who have not yet contacted the police, and a single point of contact at times of crisis, perhaps out of hours when staff resources may be limited. It is therefore proposed that at a national level a telephone help-line is created and maintained, offering a highly publicised and easily remembered number, that any victim or witness of crime can contact if they need advice on how to cope with their experience.

5.2.8 The help-line could operate in one of two ways. At one level (the simplest) it would not have access to any specific case or personal information, but would be available to advise on support organisations, and on the generalities of what’s involved in reporting a crime to the police, or in being a witness. Importantly, the help-line would be a listening, and anonymous, ear, for victims to unburden themselves, and would be a signposting service to the agencies which could provide appropriate support. The help-line would, if the caller requested it, make referrals to appropriate local support groups, and would contact the local groups to help in making the link. The help-line would be supported by a web site, containing relevant information for victims and witnesses, and details of support organisations. The important element of both these components is that they should be independent of any one voluntary agency.

5.2.9 At a second level, the help-line could be supported by a national database of victims and witnesses, which could either be located locally to the help-line or could be based at the Scottish Criminal Records Office (SCRO). The database would carry information on victims and witnesses whose case had been disposed of, and would effectively provide the personal information provision to victims and witnesses beyond in the period subsequent to the court disposal. This is expanded in the section below.

5.2.10 We estimate that a small one- or two-seat call centre should be sufficient for the level of demand; industry rates for call centre services are generally around £35 per seat-hour (averaging over 24 hours), hence for a 24 hour a day service, operating two seats, the cost would amount to around £613,200 per annum, falling to perhaps £552,000 per annum if potential savings are taken into account, or around £300,000 for a single seat.

System-wide victim and witness information base

5.2.11 There is a potential need to establish and maintain a central database of victims and witnesses - to provide a source of information for victims and witnesses whose case is no longer the responsibility of the Fiscal Service. Individual criminal justice agencies would have access to the database, and would as a result be able to provide relevant information to victims. Victims would therefore be able to obtain information relevant to their case - details of when the offender is due for release from custody, for example, or details of the conditions of licence imposed by the parole board on release. Preparations are already in place for SCRO to be extended through the provision of a Victim and Witness "chapter" to the existing criminal records database, and for mechanisms to be created for automatic transfer of data from the Fiscal Service computer systems to SCRO. Once this is in place, it will be possible to service the information needs of victims and witnesses, post trial, from any criminal justice agency connected to the SCRO system through the ISCJIS computer network. The work to develop the new chapter in the SCRO system is likely to take at least a year to complete, and this will impact on the speed with which effective information can be delivered to victims and witnesses.

5.2.12 In the meantime, if alternative means of information handling are considered In the short term, for example, the needs could be met by a stand-alone database accessible by the telephone help-line staff), it will be vital to ensure that appropriate data from the Fiscals’ SOS IV computer system becomes available on final disposal of the case, to support the information demands of victims and witnesses.

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