Court closure plan ‘outrageous hypocrisy’

DOZENS of courts are facing closure across Scotland as budgets are slashed to save millions of pounds.

Trials will also be ended at two-thirds of sheriff courts, with criminals instead facing justice in “centralised” hubs, official documents obtained by The Scotsman have shown.

Radical plans to end the High Court sitting on “circuit” in towns across the country were blocked by senior judges, who warned it could undermine the public’s “visible local access” to justice. Instead, it will cut back on the number of towns it visits.

The Scottish Court Service faces a swingeing 20 per cent cut in the years ahead.

The plans have been branded “outrageous hypocrisy” by opposition politicians. They have also prompted concerns that “visible” local access to justice may be lost, while the system could be left struggling to cope with exceptional events and unusual peaks in the workload.

Some courts in towns such as Alloa, Forfar and Stonehaven are deemed too close to other big courts to justify keeping them open, while others such as Peebles, Rothesay and Duns simply are not busy enough.

The figures have emerged in a secret policy development document into future court structures. The Scottish Court Service was one of the big losers in the recent spending review announced by finance Secretary John Swinney and is set to lose a massive £52.3 million from its capital budgets over the next four years.

The court service has already shed 120 staff to ease the 20 per cent fall in its revenue budget, but more cuts are needed to balance the books.

A total of 34 court buildings around the country have been pencilled in for closure under the plans. A dozen sheriff courts are going because they are not busy enough, including Dornoch, Duns, Kirkcudbright, Tain, Peebles, Rothesay and Lochgilphead.

Justice of the Peace courts in Annan, Coatbridge, Cumbernauld, Kirkcaldy and Irvine look doomed for the same reason.

A further eight sheriff courts – in Alloa, Cupar, Dingwall, Forfar, Haddington, Lanark, Selkirk and Stonehaven – are also set to shut because they cover towns of less than 20,000 and are within 20 miles of another, bigger court.

One measure likely to spark controversy is plans to end jury trials in two thirds of the country’s 49 sheriff courts. This would mean that many serious cases, including sex crimes, assaults and sex crimes are no longer heard locally but in 14 centralised hub courts, which would be better suited to accommodating juries of 15 people.

Labour justice spokesman James Kelly said: “It is outrageous that the SNP government is secretly plotting to shut down two-thirds of our sheriff courts.

“We hear the SNP shouting about constitutional issues and picking fights with the Supreme Court claiming they are protecting the Scottish legal system. This is pure hypocrisy, as behind our backs they are planning to make access to justice harder for thousands of Scots.”

The High Court which has bases in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee, usually sits in other towns as it goes on “circuit”, including in Dunfermline, Kilmarnock, Paisley, Dumbarton and Livingston.

Initial plans to cut this back to just three centres were blocked by judges themselves, who warned it could undermine the concept of “visible local justice”.

Communities have also warned that closure of their local courts may leave them struggling to reach bigger cities when transport links are poor.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Court Service (SCS) said: “We are discussing options for delivering a good service at lower cost with SCS staff and members of the judiciary at the moment.

“At this stage in our planning we are fact-finding to ensure we fully understand and reflect on issues from each area and take these into account, along with the other business analysis work that we are undertaking.”