Criminals will be asked to rate court

Published on Saturday 10 May 2008 20:05

COURT users, including the accused and convicted criminals, are to be surveyed for their opinions on the 'standard of service' they receive from the justice system.

The Scottish Government will spend 150,000 surveying court users on topics including waiting times, comfort and staff politeness. But the move has been condemned as a waste of cash by opposition MSPs and by victims' rights groups.

The Scottish Court Service has asked research experts to tender for the project. They will survey judges, lawyers, witnesses, relatives of the accused and victims, as well as police officers and the accused.

The survey will ask about waiting times, helpfulness and politeness of staff, comfort and cleanliness of accommodation, catering facilities, and ease of finding the courts and preparation rooms. Users will be asked how they found their time in court as they leave.

Convicted criminals going straight into custody will not normally be surveyed. But criminals who receive fines or suspended sentences might be questioned.

However, Clive Elliot, director of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: "There are victims' support groups up and down the country which are struggling to survive because of a lack of funds. This survey seems to be a very poor use of cash. This money could be put to much better use to deal with ineffectual prosecutions of crime which see criminals walk free."

Bill Aitken, the Scottish Conservative justice spokesman, said: "This money might be much better spent in running a few night courts to catch up with the existing backlog of cases."

Last year, Scotland on Sunday revealed that Scottish Courts staff had been told to refer to all court users, including criminals, as "customers". The policy was hastily dropped in the face of public criticism.

However, the Government last night defended the survey. A Scottish Courts Service spokesman said: "During the survey period, exit surveys are conducted in virtually all our courts and include legal professionals, witnesses, victims, jurors, civil litigants, visitors, members of the public as well as those accused and convicted of crimes.

"The survey does not ask any questions about the outcome of individual cases."