SNP accused of 'betraying' victims of crime as they wait three years for justice
Victims of crime are now having to wait nearly three years to get justice in the most serious cases, including murder and rape.
Growing backlogs of cases in the High Court have resulted in a sharp rise in the time taken to proceed from offence to verdict.
Scheduled High Court trials have soared amid rising pressure on the justice system, which has failed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Official figures reveal the median time from offence to verdict in the High Court has risen to 1,032 days, almost double the 520 days recorded in the year before the Covid pandemic.
New data also shows scheduled High Court trials reached 743 in March and climbed to 818 by June - compared to 390 trials originally projected for the end of 2024/25 by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service when it carried out modelling in 2021.
Liam Kerr, Scottish Conservative justice spokesman, said: 'These damning figures highlight that the SNP is miserably failing to clear the horrendous backlogs in Scotland's courts.
'Thanks to the Nationalists' chronic mismanagement of Scotland's courts, we are still miles away from hitting pre-pandemic backlog levels, despite what was predicted during the Covid period.
'SNP cuts to the justice budget and its failure to get funding to the front line are inevitably leading to mounting backlogs in the system - and that's a shameful betrayal of victims, because justice delayed is justice denied.
'Even victims of the most serious crimes are being betrayed by SNP ministers, as they now have to wait over 1,000 days on average for a verdict in High Court cases.'
The figures, revealed by 1919 magazine, show that the median time from offence to verdict in the High Court was 1,032 days in 2023/24, compared to 520 days in 2019/20.
In Sheriff Court cases, the median time from offence to verdict in 2023/24 was 564 days, compared to 283 days in 2019/20.
Modelling from the SCTS published in March 2021 found that there was expected to be 390 trials scheduled in the High Court and 500 trials scheduled in Sheriff Solemn Courts by March 2025.
But the new data shows there were actually 743 scheduled trials in the High Court and 1,004 in Sheriff Solemn Courts, which cover serious crimes like assault and drug offences, at this point.
Summary cases, including common assault, domestic abuse, crimes of dishonesty and motoring offences, are also facing delays. Figures from March this year show more than 20,600 cases still waiting, nearly 50 per cent higher than predicted in 2021.
The Scottish Police Federation has warned that delays and collapsed trials are wasting valuable resources and draining frontline capacity.
An SCTS spokesman said: 'We remain conscious of the impact delays in the criminal justice system have on victims and witnesses.
'That is why our focus has been on striving to reduce the number of cases in the system and the length of time people wait for the outcome of a case.
'SCTS advised the criminal justice committee in December 2021 that we anticipated the backlog created by the Covid-19 pandemic would be cleared by 2026.
'Since then, and through our strong criminal court recovery programme, the number of scheduled trials has reduced from over 43,000 in January 2022 to under 18,000 at the end of June 2025. That is the fewest number of planned scheduled trials since 2018/19.
'However we are now dealing with a substantial increase in High Court business - the most serious criminal cases - which places pressure on a system with finite capacity.
'High Court scheduled trials at the end of June 2025 number 818, far higher than the pre pandemic position of 390. This means maintaining increased capacity is essential to prevent delays for all who use the system.'
A Scottish Government spokesman said: 'Scotland is the only part of the UK to have successfully brought court backlog levels back down to below Covid levels - a testament to our comprehensive approach and substantial investment in recovery funding of over £201 million since 2021, which includes £20.3 million to the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service in 2025/26.
'This trend is continuing and we remain committed to supporting justice partners to maintain this progress.'
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