The Scottish Parliament approved a Bill designed to provide rights and support for victims and witnesses, including provision for implementing Directive 2012/29/European Union of the European Parliament and the Council; and to establish a committee of the Mental Welfare Commission with functions relating to people who were placed in institutional care as children.
Source: Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Bill, Scottish Government, TSO | Scottish Parliament Debate 12 December 2013, columns 25778-25798, Official Report, TSO
Links: Bill | Explanatory notes | Policy memorandum | Official Report
Date: 2013-Dec
The Scottish Government announced that it would make changes to the way services for offenders were planned, managed and delivered, following a consultation on options for redesigning the community justice system. Key changes included: transferring responsibility for the planning and delivery of community justice services to the Community Planning Partnerships; development of a national strategy for community justice and reducing reoffending; and a new national body to oversee the activity of community justice partners, with the ability to commission services nationally if required.
Source: Redesigning the Community Justice System: A consultation on proposals, Scottish Government
Links: Report | Summary | Scottish Government press release
Date: 2013-Dec
A report examined policing in Britain. It noted that police forces had been subject to much recent reform, alongside new policing challenges and ongoing debates about the purpose, organization and governance of policing. It made recommendations for change, including: a formal acknowledgement of the social role of policing, and the value of neighbourhood approaches, with local prevention partnerships developed to involve local citizens; improvements to case handling procedures; clearer principles to guide the use of community disposals; discontinuation of the Police and Crime Commissioner model of local governance, with a greater role for local authorities in local police boards; consultation on the restructuring of police forces; development of clear principles for outsourcing and changes to procurement practices; and changes to the terms and conditions of employment for police officers and staff, including a code of ethics and changes to misconduct proceedings.
Source: Policing for a Better Britain: Report of the Independent Police Commission, Independent Police Commission
Links: Report | IPC press release | Police Federation press release | ACPO press release | BBC report | Guardian report | New Statesman report | Telegraph report
Date: 2013-Nov
The Scottish Government published a Bill designed to make it lawful, in certain circumstances, to assist another to commit suicide.
Source: Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill, Scottish Government, TSO
Links: Bill | Explanatory notes | Policy memorandum | BBC report
Date: 2013-Nov
An audit report in Scotland said that, following the merger of police forces, there had been significant changes to governance arrangements, and some important strategies and plans were still under development. Planning the move to a single service had been hampered by poor information, a lack of clarity about roles, and difficult relationships between the government, Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority. The report said that it was unclear how anticipated savings would be achieved and called on all parties to agree how to monitor and report on outcomes and benefits, as well as on police performance. It recommended that the SPA and Police Scotland should finalize and agree their financial strategy by the end of March 2014.
Source: Police Reform: Progress update 2013, Audit Scotland
Links: Report | Summary | Audit Scotland press release | BBC report
Date: 2013-Nov
A report summarized responses to a consultation by the Scottish Government on redesigning the community justice system.
Source: Reid Howie Associates, Redesigning the Community Justice System: Analysis of consultation responses, Scottish Government
Date: 2013-Oct
The report of an independent review (by James Taylor) made a series of proposals to change the system of expenses and funding of civil litigation in Scotland. Solicitors would be able to offer their clients 'no win – no fee' agreements under which their fee was calculated as a percentage of the damages recovered. A pursuer in a personal injury action would no longer run the risk of having to pay the defender's expenses should the court action fail, except in very limited circumstances.
Source: Review of Expenses and Funding of Civil Litigation in Scotland, Scottish Government
Links: Report | Scottish Government press release
Date: 2013-Sep
A survey examined public perceptions of organized crime in Scotland. 10 per cent of respondents said that they had been personally affected by organized crime in the previous three years.
Source: Ipsos MORI Scotland, Public Perceptions of Organised Crime in Scotland, Scottish Government
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Sep
The Scottish Government published a discussion paper on how the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act might be modernized and reformed in Scotland.
Source: Discussion Paper on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, Scottish Government
Links: Discussion paper
Date: 2013-Aug
A report by a committee of MSPs said that communications between criminal justice organizations and victims and witnesses needed to be improved.
Source: Stage 1 Report on the Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Bill, 7th Report 2013, SP Paper 332, Scottish Parliament Justice Committee
Links: Report | Scottish Parliament press release
Date: 2013-Jun
The Scottish Government published (following consultations) a Bill designed to improve the criminal justice system. It included proposals to: modernize and improve efficiency within the criminal justice system; abolish the requirement for corroboration in criminal trials; increase the jury majority required for a guilty verdict to two-thirds of jurors; raise the maximum sentence for handling knives and other offensive weapons from 4 to 5 years; modernize the law around arrest and questioning of suspects; and improve the right to legal advice for individuals taken into police custody.
Source: Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill, Scottish Government, TSO
Links: Bill | Explanatory notes | Policy memorandum | Scottish Government press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2013-Jun
Two linked articles examined legislation creating a single police service for Scotland. It said that the legislation was not the conclusion of a merger, but the beginning of a reform process. Concerns were identified over the relationship between politics and the police, the balance between local and national priorities, and the effectiveness of the new accountability mechanisms.
Source: Kenneth Scott, 'A single police force for Scotland: the legislative framework (1)', Policing, Volume 7 Number 2 | Kenneth Scott, 'A single police force for Scotland: the legislative framework (2)', Policing, Volume 7 Number 2
Links: Abstract (1) | Abstract (2)
Date: 2013-May
An article examined the views of offenders in Scotland about what helped and hindered young people generally in the process of desistance; why interventions might or might not encourage desistance; and what criminal justice and other agencies could do to alleviate the problems that might result in offending. Probation-style supervisory relationships with workers were still the key means to promote desistance: but given that offenders perceived desistance to be 'by design' rather than 'by default', there still needed to be a greater emphasis placed by criminal justice and wider agencies on the structural obstacles to a legal, conventional, and integrated lifestyle.
Source: Monica Barry, 'Desistance by design: offenders' reflections on criminal justice theory, policy and practice', European Journal of Probation, Volume 5 Number 2
Date: 2013-May
A report by a committee of MSPs called for a strategy to ensure that all prisoners in Scotland were offered equal access to purposeful activities such as work, education, and rehabilitation programmes.
Source: Inquiry into Purposeful Activity in Prisons, 5th Report 2013, SP Paper 299, Scottish Parliament Justice Committee
Links: Report | Scottish Parliament press release
Date: 2013-Mar
An article examined the relationship between social science research and human rights, drawing on a study in Scotland. Social policy and social science research had an important contribution to make in the promotion and protection of human rights.
Source: Alison Hosie and Michele Lamb, 'Human rights and social policy: challenges and opportunities for social research and its use as evidence in the protection and promotion of human rights in Scotland', Social Policy and Society, Volume 12 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Feb
An article examined whether peers had a lasting effect on offending behaviour, based on a longitudinal study of 4,300 teenagers in Edinburgh. The level of offending of someone's friends at age 13-14 had a clear immediate effect on their own offending: this effect steadily diminished over time but remained statistically significant for a period of 2-5 years. Friends' offending was among the most important variables explaining own offending.
Source: David Smith and Russell Ecob, 'The influence of friends on teenage offending: how long did it last?', European Journal of Criminology, Volume 10 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Jan
