The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service quarterly statistics demonstrate that for the last quarter there were four times more criminal cases being brought to a conclusion than that of the first quarter of the year. During the latest quarter a total of 15,643 criminal cases were concluded. The level of criminal court business has risen to 89% of that of the average quarter for the previous year. Therefore some have suggested that these figures are demonstrative of criminal court business heading toward the return of normality.
The chief operations officer David Fraser stated:
“While there are encouraging signs that our new way of working is allowing us to return to normal operating levels, large backlogs of cases remain and we are working closely with the judiciary, Scottish Government, justice organisations, the legal profession and the third sector to find and implement solutions to reduce this.”