Annual Report 2024-25

Our inspection activity

20. In 2024-25, we published two inspection reports – The prosecution of domestic abuse cases at sheriff summary level in April 2024 and Responding to enquiries: service delivery through National Enquiry Point in January 2025. We are currently working on a joint inspection with His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) in relation to citing witnesses in the sheriff court. We have also monitored progress made by COPFS in implementing recommendations arising from three previous inspections.

The prosecution of domestic abuse cases at sheriff summary level^[30]

21. This inspection assessed how well COPFS prepared, managed and prosecuted domestic abuse cases at sheriff summary level, as well as how efficiently such cases are progressed. We made 27 recommendations. We have assessed the standalone recommendations and recommendations that are sub-divided individually, which results in 47 assessments from the 27 recommendations.

22. COPFS recognised and accepted that the inspection found too many cases which were not prepared well for trial and in which victims were not kept informed nor were their individual needs addressed.

23. At the outset, COPFS acknowledged that implementing some of the recommendations would need the co-operation of Police Scotland and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS). For those recommendations which COPFS could deliver, they aimed to implement all of them by March 2025. Recommendations which COPFS consider require stakeholder involvement to implement have been described by them as ‘year 2 priorities’. They aim to implement those recommendations, of which there are 12, by April 2026.^[31]

24. As part of our follow-up reporting process of the 47 recommendations or sub-recommendations our assessment is as follows -

• Achieved – 2
• Substantial progress – 8
• In progress – 27
• Not achieved – 10

Further detail can be found in the associated table at Appendix 2.

25. COPFS acknowledge that the inspection report afforded them the opportunity to make immediate improvements but also expressed a keen desire to go further – to bring about cultural shift and embedding change to make a meaningful and enduring difference which will take time. COPFS has increased awareness raising of domestic abuse and a trauma-informed approach over the last year. There have been good examples of enhanced engagement with support agencies, improved practices across some sheriffdoms and collegiate working between Police Scotland and COPFS Policy Division. COPFS has chosen to approach many of the operational process recommendations on a local court sheriffdom basis rather than adopting a consistent, national approach to the domestic abuse across the organisation in keeping with the aim of the inspection report.

26. It is clear that those leading implementation of this inspection have significant expert knowledge and are passionate about the need to bring about lasting improvements. That has largely been achieved in the context of COPFS training, and policies.

27. There have been a number of positive developments across COPFS mostly focused on the improvement of training and guidance as set out in recommendation 1 of the inspection report^[32] which provides a necessary foundation for COPFS staff working on these cases. This has included the roll-out of training updated by the Procurator Fiscal for Domestic Abuse at the Scottish Prosecution College. At the time of writing there was a waiting list to attend the domestic abuse training.

28. We are also advised that updated Victims and Witnesses e-learning has been produced, a Domestic Abuse Manual created to provide a single source of information/guidance including in relation to the discontinuation policy for lawyers working on domestic abuse cases, that the Case Marking Instructions (CMIs) have been updated. The COPFS Bail Manual has also been updated to reflect the changes brought about by the Bail (Release from Custody) (Scotland) Act 2023.

29. We are pleased to note a COPFS National Domestic Abuse Forum headed by a Procurator Fiscal has been established to share local learning.^[33]

30. We have heard evidence in relation to the positive impact SCM has had with victim engagement^[34] with prosecutors contacting victims in advance of case management hearings. We have very recently been advised by COPFS that in August 2025 74% of SCM domestic abuse cases had recorded prosecutor contact being made with victims.^[35]

31. Data shared with us shows a significant reduction in the amount of summary trials being fixed and less witnesses being cited and recited in domestic abuse cases in sheriffdoms where SCM has been rolled out.^[36] We will require further relevant data from COPFS to properly measure the extent of successful witness engagement and the ability of Procurator Fiscal Deputes (deputes) to have sufficient time to both undertake this engagement and properly prepare domestic abuse cases.^[37]

32. No evidence has been provided to us to provide further reassurance in relation to issues we raised in the report concerning failure demand^[38] and quality assurance.^[39]

33. It is disappointing that some of the most urgent, practical recommendations at the heart of the inspection report have not yet been implemented not least given the implications on service delivery for victims of domestic abuse. Despite recommending that COPFS should review whether the current VIA service in summary cases is fit for purpose no such review appears to have taken place.^[40] Therefore, there has been no shift to domestic abuse victims having dedicated VIA officers as recommended, nor has COPFS taken immediate steps to ensure that victims are receiving basic information about their case, including its outcome, timeously.^[41][42] We are advised that many of the VIA related recommendations require the VMP, which now comes under the auspices of DFS and the associated structural changes to progress.^[43]

34. We also determined from our inspection in relation to the National Enquiry Point (Enquiry Point) and from our ongoing work in relation to citations in the sheriff court that all victim and witness contact is still not recorded in one centralised place accessible to all staff. This is a real risk for COPFS with the potential for vital information provided by victims and witnesses not to be shared or properly captured and could have significant consequences on progress of cases. We understand that a working group has now been established to explore options of capturing the information in one document in the COPFS case management system.

35. Further, in the domestic abuse inspection report we recommended that in the short term, COPFS should take immediate action to ensure that all staff are aware where victim and witness contact with Enquiry Point is recorded, and that staff use this information when preparing and managing cases.^[44] This is still not happening in practice.

36. To afford confidence about the implementation of many of our recommendations we require data to confirm that they are working in practice along with how the impact of SCM, training and other initiatives are being monitored across COPFS.^[45] Our focus for the year ahead will be to what extent implementation of this inspection has brought about change for victims and those prosecuting these challenging and sensitive cases on a daily basis.

Responding to enquiries: service delivery through National Enquiry Point^[46]

37. The aim of this inspection was to assess how COPFS responds to enquiries received by National Enquiry Point (Enquiry Point), its customer contact centre. Enquiry Point deals with call and email enquiries from victims, witnesses, next of kin and accused, as well as professionals working in the justice system. We assessed how efficiently and effectively enquiries are addressed, whether they are resolved by Enquiry Point at the first point of contact or transferred to other teams within COPFS for action. As the first point of contact for many who are seeking information or advice from or providing information to COPFS, Enquiry Point plays a key role in delivering COPFS’s obligations towards victims and witnesses.

38. We found that the quality of enquiry handling by Enquiry Point operators was generally good. Operators were polite, respectful and empathetic. Operators and their managers were committed to delivering the best service possible, and their work was well understood and highly valued by senior leaders within COPFS. However, this understanding of the role of Enquiry Point was not shared across COPFS. Many staff had low awareness of the volume and range of enquiries resolved by Enquiry Point.

39. We also found that the quality of enquiry handling could be improved even further with better guidance, training, systems and processes for operators. Critically, enquiry handling could also be improved if more staff across COPFS recognised their own role in responding to enquiries, had a greater focus on customer service along with the skills, confidence and capacity to assist Enquiry Point where operators have been unable to resolve enquiries at first point of contact. When seeking assistance from colleagues, operators can make many unsuccessful attempts to transfer callers. This prolongs the call for the person making the enquiry and extends the waiting time for all other callers in the Enquiry Point queue. When calls are successfully transferred or email enquiries are forwarded to other teams for action, we found that the quality of enquiry handling by those teams is not as good as when enquiries are managed entirely by operators. While enquiries are generally handled well once they reach an operator, a key concern is the unmet demand for the Enquiry Point service. In the year to September 2024, 19% of callers were turned away because call queues were full. A further 50% of callers abandoned their call before it was answered.

40. We also found delays in email enquiries being dealt with. We therefore recommended that COPFS should look afresh at Enquiry Point’s demand and consider what levels of service it aims to provide to those who call and email. We advised that COPFS should ensure that Enquiry Point is appropriately staffed and supported by the wider organisation, and that all staff have the tools to do their jobs well. The inspection also reinforced the need for COPFS to urgently address a previous recommendation that it identifies and reduces failure demand – we were able to estimate that almost a quarter of enquiries received each year are a result of COPFS failing to do something correctly or at all.

41. We made 18 recommendations which focussed on customer service, improved governance, awareness raising about the role of Enquiry Point and training for COPFS staff.

42. As noted above in paragraph 34, we were particularly concerned to note that, despite recommending that all victim and witness contact is recorded in one centralised place accessible to all staff in our The prosecution of domestic abuse cases at sheriff summary level^[47] inspection report that this was clearly still not happening by the time we carried out the Enquiry Point inspection. This prompted us to make a very similar recommendation^[48] – that COPFS should ensure Enquiry Point has appropriate systems and processes in place that support the recording of all types of enquiry and that this information is accessible to all those who may require it.

43. This inspection is at the early stages of implementation and we have been really heartened by the enthusiasm and engagement of those COPFS staff leading on it. As set out previously COPFS has recently made a decision to ringfence these staff, away from their day jobs, to focus solely on our recommendations. An associated working group has also been established to provide support and governance. The involvement of the working group ought to be particularly beneficial in relation to consideration of wider ranging recommendations which are beyond the remit of Enquiry Point managers.

44. COPFS has committed to implementing all of our recommendations by the end of March 2026. We will provide a full update on the implementation of this inspection in our 2025-26 annual report.

Citing witnesses in the sheriff court

45. Work is ongoing in relation to our current joint inspection with HMICS which we hope to publish over the winter. The terms of reference were published in March 2025.^[49]

46. As set out in the terms of reference, in recent years, the citing of witnesses has emerged as an issue in scrutiny activity carried out by both IPS and HMICS.

47. In both of our most recent inspections The prosecution of domestic abuse cases at sheriff summary level and Responding to enquiries: service delivery through National Enquiry Point a range of citation-related issues arose. These included concerns about:

• the content and accuracy of citations
• witnesses not receiving citations
• the timeliness of citations
• witnesses not being countermanded timeously or at all
• the process by which witnesses update their contact information, allowing citations to be delivered to the correct address
• the process by which witnesses seek to be excused from giving evidence
• serving citations in a manner which is not trauma-informed
• barriers to witnesses attending court
• the impact of repeat citations on victim and witness wellbeing and their continued engagement in the justice process.

48. IPS and HMICS are therefore jointly considering the end-to-end citation process, including:

• whether the information initially gathered by the police and reported to COPFS supports effective decision making about citing witnesses
• the decision to cite and the issuing of citations by COPFS
• the management of the citation process by both COPFS and Police Scotland, including serving citations and countermands
• the management of witness availability, including excusal requests and, for police and professional witnesses, the use of standby arrangements and the giving of evidence remotely
• the impact of being cited on witnesses and the barriers to giving evidence
• how the current process for citing witnesses contributes to the efficient and effective administration of justice
• opportunities to modernise the citation process and make it more efficient, including through use of digital technology.

Following up on previous recommendations

The management of criminal allegations against the police^[50]

49. In 2021 we published a report on how COPFS manages criminal allegations against the police. We concluded that the quality of decision making by COPFS in such cases was good, and that the public should be reassured by the robust scrutiny which is applied to on duty criminal allegations against the police. This had been assisted by the creation of the Criminal Allegations Against the Police Division (CAAP-D), a unit staffed by specialist prosecutors who had developed effective relationships with stakeholders. To improve how criminal allegations against the police were managed we made 18 recommendations.

50. We reviewed the progress COPFS had made against our recommendations as part of our last annual report^[51] and concluded that 13 of the recommendations had been achieved.

51. Of the remaining five recommendations COPFS has been unable to progress a recommendation that it should work with its partners to introduce an electronic reporting system for criminal allegations against the police. We were advised that the cost of such a system balanced against the number of cases reported meant that it was not a priority within COPFS’s digital strategy or their criminal justice partners in the short to medium term.

52. We observe the importance of COPFS taking account of the needs of smaller units in the organisation, for example CAAP-D, when the next generation of case management systems is developed. It is unknown when funding will be obtained for such systems but as discussed elsewhere in this report the need for new systems has been a recurring theme through our inspection reports for many years.

53. In our 2023-24 annual report, we noticed a tendency that CAAP-D relied mostly on written communication. Since then, a new and proactive communication approach has been implemented. Given the need to ensure the confidence of complainers at the outset of cases in which the person alleged of criminality is a police officer this is to be welcomed.

54. At the time of our follow-up, we also noted a gap in the guidance for agencies other than Police Scotland that report to CAAP-D. Since then, we are pleased to note that this has been addressed with notification and reporting timescales now agreed.

55. We are also pleased to note that COPFS has taken steps to attempt to monitor the protected characteristics of those who make criminal allegations against the police. Whilst COPFS has faced challenges in implementing an effective monitoring system it is important that steps have been taken. Ensuring the confidence of the most vulnerable groups in Scotland can only be improved by transparency and we will consider this again in our next annual report when we hope to be able to conclude that the relevant recommendation has been achieved.

56. Further detail on the action taken to implement the recommendations is available at Appendix 2.

COPFS practice in relation to sections 274 and 275 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995^[52]

57. In our last annual report,^[53] we reported on the extensive progress made in implementing our inspection report in relation to sections 274 and 275 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. This was published in October 2022 and made nine recommendations, one of which was directed at the Scottish Government. We assessed that of the eight recommendations directed at COPFS, seven had been achieved and that substantial progress had been made in relation to recommendation 1.

58. In response to recommendation 1, COPFS had updated their instructions to staff in relation to record keeping and what documentation should be imported into both the case management system and in the system used for electronic reporting to Crown Counsel. A single point of contact had been appointed in each sheriffdom to oversee sheriff court sexual offences cases and import key documentation into case records. For further details see Appendix 2. While this represented substantial progress towards addressing this recommendation, IPS considered there was scope for assurance work to be undertaken in High Court cases regarding record keeping in the case management system to confirm that the instructions were being followed by staff in practice.

59. Taking on board IPS comments last year, COPFS has undertaken assurance work in the form of a dip sample of cases to check staff compliance with instructions regarding record keeping. This revealed that all cases in the sample had the section 275 applications (Crown and/or defence) saved in the case record in the case management system and in the system used for electronic reporting to Crown Counsel, with the exception of one which was missing the defence application. In addition, almost all the cases checked had notes from the meeting informing the complainer of the section 275 application(s) (precognition) saved in the case record. This is a significant improvement in record keeping than IPS experienced at the time of the inspection report.

60. We have been advised that COPFS intend to carry out a dip sample monthly to check that these issues have been addressed with staff. COPFS advise that the assurance work of dip sampling of cases has been added to their quality assurance rolling agenda item at the High Court Operations Board. We are pleased to note the ongoing commitment to ensure that the record keeping is accurate and that any training issues with staff are identified.

61. We are therefore now content to assess this one outstanding recommendation as achieved. We commend the commitment of staff within COPFS to ensure that the recommendations in this report were addressed appropriately and swiftly to improve how COPFS makes and responds to section 275 applications.

Joint review of diversion from prosecution^[54]

62. The joint review^[55] of diversion from prosecution was published in February 2023. The aim was to assess the operation and impact of diversion from prosecution in Scotland and sought to provide an overview of diversion practice from policing, prosecution and social work perspectives to highlight what worked well and any barriers to effective use of diversion.

63. The report highlighted that diversion from prosecution, which is designed to address underlying causes of offending, was well established and an effective intervention for young people^[56] but more could be done to promote confidence in their use for adults.

64. The report made 34 recommendations, 14 of which related to COPFS to assist in ensuring efficient and effective processes in decision making and management of diversion cases. These included improved and focussed collaboration between agencies; standardisation of reports; enhanced record keeping; provision of adequate guidance and training; and communication with victims and the accused person.

65. Whilst work has been ongoing to address the recommendations, progress towards implementing many of them cannot be achieved until publication of revised national guidelines.^[57] These guidelines describe the aims and benefits of diversion, the diversion process and the role played by the police, prosecutors and local authorities. The joint review recommended changes to the guidelines and this impacts on some of the recommendations attributed to COPFS. A Community Justice Group, on which COPFS is represented, has revised the guidelines which are now at an advanced stage. For other recommendations not affected by the national guidelines IPS will require further evidence of actions taken by COPFS to progress implementation.

66. A Scottish Government working group is monitoring the implementation of all recommendations and IPS will provide a full update on the implementation of this inspection in our 2025-26 annual report.

67. For further details see the associated table in Appendix 2.

Inspection programme 2025-26

68. Our inspection in relation to citing witnesses in the sheriff court is ongoing. We keep our future inspection programme under continuous review and will consult with the Law Officers, COPFS and other stakeholders on other issues that would benefit from independent scrutiny. As might reasonably be expected from a new Chief Inspector there are a number of areas across COPFS which I consider would benefit from inspection by IPS which we will take time to fully explore once our current inspection concludes.

69. As set out in the 2023-24 annual report we still anticipate that in the near future our programme will include a review of the COPFS approach to learning and development for its staff given how frequently the issue of training has emerged throughout our recent inspection activity.

70. In 2025-26 we will also continue to review progress made by COPFS in implementing recommendations from our Inspection of the management of criminal allegations against the police by COPFS, Joint review on diversion from prosecution, The prosecution of domestic abuse cases at sheriff summary level inspection, Responding to enquiries: service delivery through National Enquiry Point and, in due course, Citing witnesses in the sheriff court.