Current status: Answered by Neil Gray on 9 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take in 2026 to reduce the number of hours that police officers spend in court.
Justice partners including Police Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) and Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (SCTS) will continue to build on the significant progress made in reducing officer time spent in court.
The introduction of the judicially led Summary Case Management (SCM) approach, supported by the implementation of Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC) has led to quicker resolutions on a number of cases and it is estimated that over 100,000 fewer police officers were cited to give evidence during the period of the national rollout of SCM.
This was highlighted in the joint report from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Scotland (HMICS) and His Majesty's Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland (IPS) on court citations published in March of this year. The report also made a number of recommendations around how the system of court citations could be made more user friendly for all court users, including police officers. It is for Police Scotland and COPFS to consider and implement these recommendations.
These reforms will continue to improve efficiency across the system by reducing unnecessary trials, minimising witness citations, and helping to address court backlogs. We also expect to see further reductions in court time for officers with the rollout of Body Worn Video (BWV), as video evidence is processed.