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A Scottish Executive National Statistics Publication

CRIMINAL APPEAL STATISTICS, SCOTLAND, 2000

22 AUGUST 2001

A total of just over 3,100 appeals against conviction, sentence or acquittal were concluded in the High Court of Justiciary in 2000, a decrease of 2 per cent compared with 1999 and 16 per cent below the peak of 3,652 appeals recorded in 1993, figures released today show.

Between 1999 and 2000, the number of appeals which involved High Court or Sheriff Solemn court cases (27 per cent of all appeals) increased by 14 per cent to 835. This was offset by decreases in the number of appeals involving Sheriff Summary court cases (down by 5 per cent to 1,976) and Stipendiary Magistrates court (down by 24 per cent to 123). There was little change in the total number of appeals which involved District Court cases – 171 in 2000.

Of the appeals decided in 2000, 8 per cent related to conviction alone, 87 per cent to sentence alone and 5 per cent to both conviction and sentence. A very small number of appeals related to the leniency of a sentence or an acquittal. The majority (75 per cent) of appeals involved persons who had been given a custodial sentence while a further 18 per cent related to persons who had been fined.

The total of 3,105 appeals in 2000 was equivalent to just under three per cent of the total number of persons with a charge proved in criminal proceedings in that year. As a proportion of all persons with a charge proved, appeals were relatively more frequent in cases involving custodial sentences (15 per cent) than for fines or other types of sentence (1 per cent). This proportion also tended to increase with custodial sentence length: it was 12 per cent for custodial sentences of up to 6 months compared to 73 per cent for cases involving sentences of 4 years and over. (Excluding the 92 appeals by persons convicted of murder who had appealed against the effective start date of their life sentence, the latter figure falls to 54 per cent).

Nearly all (98 per cent) of the 3,105 appeals completed in 2000 involved the sift process. In 35 per cent of these cases leave to appeal was granted at the sift stage, with this proportion being slightly higher for appeals in solemn cases (39 per cent) than for summary cases (33 per cent).

Out of the total number of appeals completed in 2000, 67 per cent were refused at the sift stage or abandoned, while a further 21 per cent were otherwise unsuccessful. In total, 12 per cent of appeals were successful, including the quashing of the original conviction (1.6 per cent) or a reduction in the original sentence (10.6 per cent). This success rate was higher for the 422 appeals in High Court cases (26 per cent successful) than for the 413 appeals in Sheriff solemn cases (14 per cent successful) and the 2,270 appeals in summary cases (10 per cent successful). In a handful of cases the original sentence was increased.

In the 92 successful appeals against custodial sentence in 2000, the average reduction in sentence length was 34 per cent. Successful appeals against a fine (42 cases) resulted in an average reduction of 49 per cent in the amount of fine.

The introduction of a preliminary sift stage into the appeals process in September 1995 had a displacement effect on the outcome of appeals. There was an increase in the proportion of appeals which were refused at the sift stage or abandoned and a corresponding decrease in the proportion which were dismissed.

The average length of time taken to complete appeals followed a general downward trend during most of the early 1990s, falling from 86 days in 1990 to a low of 58 days in 1998. The average then increased in 1999 (to 81 days) and again in 2000 (to 84 days). Between 1999 and 2000 there were increases in the average duration of appeals involving High Court cases (up by 36 per cent to 189 days) and Sheriff solemn court cases (up by 15 per cent to 123 days). The average duration of appeals fell for Sheriff summary court cases (down by 10 per cent to 56 days) and for Stipendiary magistrate court cases (down by 5 per cent to 69 days). The average duration of appeals involving District court cases fell by 59 per cent to 48 days, which was more in line with the figures for years before 1999. (The average figure recorded for District Court case appeals in 1999 (116 days) reflected the unusually high proportion of cases in that year which took 9 months or longer to complete – 20 per cent compared with the more typical 1 or 2 per cent.)

The majority (74 per cent) of appeals in 2000 were completed within 3 months; the corresponding proportion in 1999 was 79 per cent. Three per cent of appeals took more than one year to complete. In 2000, appeals against conviction took on average almost three times as long to complete as appeals against sentence only, 189 days compared with 68 days.

NOTES

1. All findings of the court of first instance are subject to appeal to the High Court of Justiciary, sitting as an appeal court. Convicted offenders may appeal against their conviction; against sentence; or against both conviction and sentence. The right to appeal sentence alone in summary cases has been available since 1981, following changes introduced by the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980. From late September 1995 leave to appeal must, in nearly all cases, be granted by a High Court judge; refusal of leave may be appealed to the High Court. The Lord Advocate has a right to refer a case resulting in acquittal to the High Court for a decision on a point of law (though this does not affect the acquittal), while the Crown also has a right of appeal against a sentence on grounds of undue leniency.

2. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) was established on 1 April 1999 to review and investigate cases of suspected wrongful conviction and/or sentence in Scotland. Where the Commission believes, after proper investigation, that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred, and that it is in the interests of justice that a reference should be made, it may refer a case to the High Court. Once a case is referred, the High Court will determine the case as if it was a normal appeal.

3. The year in which an appeal is counted is the year in which it was concluded. This is not necessarily the same as the year in which the appeal was lodged, nor the year in which sentence was passed in the original court case. Incompetent appeals and certain types of procedural appeal, such as those which are for an extension of time on an existing appeal, are excluded from the figures.

4. This Statistics Release may be viewed on the Scottish Executive Internet Web site: www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00095-00.asp.

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