Annual Report 2009-10

1. Thematic Reports

(i) Race Response (published 21 March 2005)

12 recommendations were made. All were accepted. Thereafter all individual Procurator Fiscal Offices (and Crown Office HR Division) were inspected for compliance and individual reports published. Current Area inspections include inspecting for equality with a sample of race cases being examined.

(ii) Service to Witnesses (published 21 April 2006)

6 recommendations were made and all were accepted.

Largely, effect was given to these through the introduction of the joint protocol among the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Scottish Court Service and the Witness Service (part of Victim Support). This was updated in 2008 and 2010 and again is currently under review. It is brought to the attention of new staff and Deputes.

(iii) Deaths Thematic and Organ Retention (published 18 July 2007)

9 recommendations were made, all were accepted. All have been implemented apart from two dealing with IT issues. The new IT system (Phoenix) designers will consider incorporating these into the new system.

(iv) Complaints Against the Police (published 16 January 2008)

There was one major recommendation concerning review of policy and procedure and some other suggestions for improvement. Crown Office is in the final stages of signing off a new Complaints Against the Police policy. The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland ( ACPOS) has been consulted on the new system.

(v) Natural Justice (published 16 April 2008)

See Annex D.

(vi) Fiscal Fines (published 25 March 2009)

Compensation Offers (published 9 February 2010)

These two linked reports contained seven recommendations in total and all were accepted. Some have been implemented and others are in the process of being implemented including revisal of the Prosecution Code.

2. Area Inspection Reports

(i) Dumfries and Galloway (published 31 January 2008)

5 recommendations were made and accepted. The Area Fiscal at the time prepared an implementation plan and monitoring continues to take place.

(ii) Grampian (published 15 May 2008)

5 recommendations were made and accepted and became the content of the first discussions between the then new Area Fiscal and her Crown Office line manager. The issues raised in the recommendations continue to be addressed either locally or nationally.

(iii) Ayrshire (published 21 August 2008)

(iv) Highlands and Islands (published 2 February 2009)

No specific recommendations were made in these two reports although some factors (including good practice points) were highlighted.