74.Sections 30, 31 and 32 amend a number of provisions in legislation under which business in the civil and criminal courts, including in relation to fatal accident inquiry proceedings, is scheduled. The primary consideration when scheduling court business will still be the efficient disposal of business (see section 2(2)(a) of the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008, sections 27(1) and 56(1) of the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 and section 61(1) of the Criminal Proceedings etc. (Reform) (Scotland) Act 2007). But, as a result of the amendments in these sections, the persons responsible for scheduling court business must have regard to the desirability of doing so in a way that accords with trauma-informed practice.
75.As an example of the practical effect this might have, one possible way in which the judiciary could apply trauma-informed practice when scheduling court business would be to aim to assign fixed trial dates in certain circumstances – such as when a vulnerable complainer needs to attend court to give evidence during the course of the trial, because their evidence has not been pre-recorded. However, this is just an illustration: decisions on specific approaches to trauma-informed scheduling would be a matter for the judiciary.
Crown Application Duty to have regard to principle of trauma-informed practice