Ministers urged to set timetable for Scottish sexual offences court

Plans for the court were included in the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform Act, which was passed last year.

John Logue, chief executive of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, told MSPs that the organisation had not received additional funding to implement changes set out in the legislation.

He described the proposed sexual offences court as a “sizeable commitment”.

In a letter to members of the Scottish Parliament’s Criminal Justice Committee, Mr Logue said the Crown Office was “actively engaged” in implementing measures contained in the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform Act.

He wrote that the service “is contributing to ongoing work relating to the proposed specialist sexual offences court”.

But Mr Logue added: “The challenge in implementation is one of funding as, to date, no additional resource has been made available to operationalise the provisions of this act.”

Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Yi-pei Chou Turvey said: “The SNP have an exceptionally poor track record of making lots of commitments in legislation and then failing to do the practical work to implement them.”