Justice Denied: System 'cannot continue' with level of backlog and delays

The Scottish criminal justice system is in a “worse situation” today to withstand another pandemic amid efforts to tackle a backlog of cases that was intensified as a result of Covid-19, according to a leading executive at the Law Society of Scotland.

Kevin Lang said that backlog of cases pre-dated the pandemic, and stressed that while the widespread closure of courts was necessary during Covid-19, the repercussions were still being reckoned with.

Mr Lang, executive director of external relations at the society, told the Scottish Covid-19 inquiry’s justice impact hearing: “The stark truth remains that we are dealing with the consequences of those court closures today. We went into the pandemic with a backlog of cases, and the backlog is around double the level it was in 2019 in some cases, depending on the level of court.

“The time it is taking from an offence to a verdict is double what it was before, and it’s therefore the case that we’re in a worse situation today to withstand another pandemic of this kind than we were in 2019, just by the very virtue of the sheer number of cases that are sitting to be disposed of.”

Kevin Lang, executive director of external relations at the Law Society of Scotland | Scotsman

Justice Denied, The Scotsman’s week-long series scrutinising pressures across the criminal justice system, has detailed warning from legal experts that the work to reduce delays has been “too slow,” with the median time from offence to verdict in the High Court increasingly significantly from 482 days in the second quarter of 2019/20 to 951 days in the same period in 2024/25.

Advocate Thomas Ross KC, one of Scotland’s most experienced criminal trial counsel, warned that the situation would only get worse, and said no one in the system was “thinking outside of the box.”

In his evidence to the inquiry, chaired by Lord Brailsford, Mr Lang added that it was crucial that lessons were learned from the pandemic response.

“In accepting that it was the right decision taken at the time to keep everyone safe, I think there’s more work to be done to look at how we withstand an event like this, because we cannot continue with the kind of backlog and delays we’re seeing today,” he explained.

The Scotsman's week-long series is scrutinising pressures in the criminal justice system. | TSPL

“We often use the phrase, ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’, but whether you are a complainer, somebody who has a case brought against you, it is in nobody’s interests to be sitting waiting years for a decision from the justice sector.”

In his written submission to the inquiry, Stuart Munro, convener of the Law Society of Scotland’s criminal law committee, said that given the scale of the pandemic could not have been foreseen, it was “difficult to see” the backlog of cases could have been mitigated, but said the challenge was one that had to be met by extra resources.

He explained: “The only way we can now reduce the backlog is to spend more money and make investment into the court system. We could effectively increase the output; however, this would require more court sittings. This may mean finding more physical locations for courts to sit, or investment in the technology required to support remote courts. We would also require more judges, prosecutors and defence solicitors to facilitate this.”