Journey Times in the Scottish Criminal Justice System 2024-25

5.    Accused offered COPFS disposals

[Supplementary Tables 1 and 2]

When police report a case to COPFS, the Procurator Fiscal decides if the accused should be prosecuted. In that situation, the Procurator Fiscal (PF) will raise proceedings against the accused in court. If the PF decides that court proceedings are not justified then COPFS can mark the accused in one of two ways: i) COPFS can issue a direct measure as an alternative to prosecution, for example a warning letter, a conditional fixed penalty, a fiscal fine or diversion from prosecution or ii) the case can be closed with no action taken by COPFS (if for example there is insufficient evidence to justify prosecution).

This section reports on the journey times of accused for whom COPFS decide not to raise proceedings in court.

Figure 2 shows the number of accused whose cases were closed by COPFS, along with the percentage of those who had their cases closed within 1 year and over 1 year since police were first aware of the charges (represented by colours).

The number of accused whose case was closed by COPFS decreased from 84,351 in 2017-18 to 63,470 in 2020-21. In 2021-22 the number increased again to 69,797, before declining to a stable level of around 67,000 in the most recent years.

The percentage of accused reported to COPFS and not marked for prosecution in court that had their cases closed within one year since the offence was reported to the police has been falling since 2019-20 but increased slightly over the last two years (from 80% in 2022-23 to 82% in 2023-24 to 87% in 2024-25, figure 2).

Figure 2: Percentage of accused whose case was closed by COPFS within one year has been increasing during the last two financial years.

Number of accused whose case was closed by COPFS and percentage (represented by colours) of those cases closed within 1 year, and over 1 year since police were first aware of the charges by financial year.

Median times from police known date to COPFS report, COPFS report to case closed and police known to case closed are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Median journey times for accused offered COPFS disposals have decreased in the latest financial year.

Median police known to COPFS report, COPFS report to case closed and police known to case closed times for accused with cases closed by COPFS direct measures and no action by financial year.

In general median journey times for accused persons with a COPFS “No action” marking were longer than for accused persons marked for direct measures (e.g. a warning letter or a fiscal fine), especially during financial years 2021-22 and 2022-23. This difference decreased in financial year 2023-24 and in 2024-25 the median journey time was 113 days for cases marked no action and 153 days for cases marked for direct measures.

In 2024-25, the median journey time for cases marked by COPFS for no action decreased by 50 days (-31%) when compared to 2023-24, for cases marked as direct measures, the decrease was 5 days (-3%).

Times from police known to COPFS report are similar for accused marked as direct measures or no action. The time from police known to COPFS report has been increasing since 2020-21 but during the last year decreased from 77 days in 2023-24 to 69 in 2024-25 (for accused marked as no action) and from 73 to 69 days (for accused marked as direct measures).

COPFS report to case closed times decreased from 21 days in 2023 -24 to 14 days in 2024-25 for accused marked no action and increased from 58 to 60 days for accused marked as direct measures.