Crown Office to introduce more specialist prosecutors to deal with complex crime

COPFS said it would consider bringing in more specialist units to deal with a rise in complex cases.

It indicated that increased specialisation has already resulted in “significant benefits”.

At the moment there are prosecution units who specialise in domestic abuse, organised crime, economic crime as well as “cold cases”.

COPFS said it has seen the incidence of complex cases reported to it increase.

Its report states: “Our response to this has been to enhance the prosecution of cases by the introduction of specialist prosecutors and specialist investigation units and we will continue to consider whether this can be developed further.”

Between 2013 and 2014 the Crown Office saw a four per cent increase in reports over the previous year, with the total being 303,221.

These included 36,552 domestic abuse reports and 7,479 sexual offence cases.

Crown agent Catherine Dyer said: “Each element of the Strategic Plan 2015-2018 is designed to support our purpose to secure justice for the people of Scotland.

“We will continue to work with other parts of the criminal justice system to develop ever more productive working arrangements, performing a key role in the implementation of the various reforms to criminal law and procedure under way and planned in the years ahead, especially improving the quality of justice for victims and witnesses.”

Ms Dyer added: “We also want to ensure our staff are properly equipped to cope with the challenges ahead and remain skilled, motivated and engaged. To that end, improved leadership and management training, together with training in technical skills, form major strands of our people strategy.”

In November last year, the Society of Procurators Fiscal said prosecutors were having to deal with a rise in the number of serious criminal cases as the staffing budget tightens.

The society added that this was creating a “huge risk” for the criminal justice system.

A rise in complex work along with falling resources had, it said, created a “huge risk” for the criminal justice system.

The body, which represents over 350 legal staff and which includes among its number senior lawyers from the Crown Office, made its comments in a submission to the Scottish parliament’s justice committee in relation to the draft budget for 2014/15.

The society said at the time: “While COPFS appear to have received an increase to the overall budget, upon further analysis it is apparent that the amount provided in the budget for staffing remains at £69.1 million. In real terms this is a £1.1 million cut in our staffing budget.”

It added: “Looking at Police Scotland initiatives such as the domestic abuse task force … whilst there was a commitment from the Scottish government to employ 1,000 additional police officers, there has never been a commensurate rise in the budget of Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to deal with the inevitable increase in work generated by those additional police.”