Current status: Answered by Andrew Hardie on 13 July 1999
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to increase staffing levels of the Procurator Fiscal service in order to reduce the amount of time spent by police officers waiting to appear as witnesses in criminal trials.
There are no current plans to increase staffing levels of the Procurator Fiscal Service specifically for this purpose.
Scottish Office commissioned research published in August 1998 has shown a substantial reduction in the amount of time spent by police officers in court. The research also recognised that a significant contribution to this reduction was due to the efforts made by members of the Procurator Fiscal Service to implement the legislative changes introduced by the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. Other practical and innovative measures such as 'on-call' services were introduced, following consultation in order to make more efficient use of police witness waiting time. Over the last 3 years there has been a steady increase in the number of legal staff employed by the Procurator Fiscal Service. In addition as a result of a recent recruitment drive 22 further legal appointments have been made.As with other witnesses cited to attend court, Procurators Fiscal continue to make every effort to ensure that evidence is agreed where possible and that attendance at court is restricted to those whose evidence is essential.