Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Euan McColm: Scottish judicial reform is needed – but current plans are flawed

Abolishing the not proven verdict makes sense, but other parts of planned reforms might yet run into difficulties.

The Scottish Government has announced major changes to the criminal justice system (Image: TreasureGalore/Shutterstock)
The Scottish Government has announced major changes to the criminal justice system (Image: TreasureGalore/Shutterstock)

An entirely reasonable criticism of the SNP is that, since coming to power at Holyrood in 2007, it has failed to carry out serious reform.

The SNP is risk-averse. Anything which might be controversial – and which might fail – is to be avoided, lest it negatively impacts on the independence cause.

And, so, it’s rather refreshing to see the Scottish Government announce major changes to the criminal justice system.

The plan to abolish “not proven” – the third verdict available, uniquely, to Scottish jurors – is, I think, an excellent one. A not proven verdict short-changes everyone involved in a criminal trial.

For the victim, there’s the sense that a guilty verdict might have been obtained had prosecutors done their jobs properly while, for the accused, there’s the suggestion that they got away with it.

Guilty and not guilty are verdicts good enough for legal systems around the world, and they’re good enough for Scotland.

Other parts of the planned reforms are less straightforward, and might yet run into difficulties.

Creating a two-tier justice system would be a mistake

One of the issues underpinning the desire to reform the system is the pitifully low conviction rate when it comes to sex crimes.

Women who report rapes are, right now, very unlikely to get justice. Of 2,176 rapes and attempted rapes reported to police in 2020-21, only 152 led to prosecutions, and just 78 of those ended in a conviction. Not proven is far more likely to be used in such cases than in others.

And so, on the face of it, a proposal to pilot judge-only trials for rape cases seems a good idea. That rape victims are routinely failed by our justice system is undeniable, so surely anything that might change that situation is worth trying?

But, it requires no special powers of foresight to see how this might play out. If we believe – and I think we should – that everyone accused of a crime should be treated in the same way, then can we argue in favour of some High Court cases being heard in front of juries, and others dispensing with them? The suggestion from some lawyers that this would create a two-tier justice system is not easy to dismiss.

Meanwhile, another of the proposed reforms stands to make it more difficult for prosecutors to gain convictions.

Currently, a guilty verdict in a Scottish court requires a simple majority among jurors. Right now, that’s eight out of 15. It is proposed that the number of jurors should be reduced to 12, but that threshold of at least eight votes in favour of conviction remains. In future, two thirds of a jury will have to agree to convict.

The Scottish criminal justice system has – for a long, long time – failed victims of sex crimes. Whether these reforms will improve that situation is not at all clear.


Euan McColm is a regular columnist for various Scottish newspapers

Conversation