Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2024/25: Main findings

Public awareness of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) is the independent public prosecution service for Scotland and one of the organisations which form the Scottish Criminal Justice System.

This section is based on questions asked of one-third of the overall SCJS sample. Most of these results are not broken down for population sub-groups within this report, but full results for demographic and area characteristics are provided in the 2024/25 SCJS online data tables.

Did the public report knowing about the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service?

The 2024/25 SCJS estimates that just under seven in ten adults (69%) in Scotland had heard of COPFS. This remains at a similar position to the previous survey in 2023/24 and when the questions were first asked in 2018/19. Awareness varied substantially by age, with younger adults much less likely to have heard of COPFS than older adults: around 34% of those aged between 16 and 24 reported awareness, compared with 79% of those aged 60 and over.

Among those who were aware of COPFS, around seven in ten (69%) reported knowing not very much or nothing at all about its work, while around three in ten (30%) said they knew a fair amount or a lot. Compared with earlier survey years, this represents a gradual shift towards higher self-reported knowledge, although most adults continue to report limited understanding of COPFS’s work.

Do the public have an accurate understanding of the work of COPFS?

The roles and responsibilities of COPFS are to investigate, prosecute and disrupt crime; establish the cause of sudden, unexplained or suspicious deaths; and investigate allegations of criminal conduct against police officers.

Adults who said they were aware of COPFS were asked to indicate which roles they believed were carried out by COPFS, selecting multiple answers from a list of four options (two correct and two incorrect). In 2024/25, around seven in ten (72%) correctly identified COPFS’s role in investigating and prosecuting crime, while just under half (47%) identified its role in investigating sudden and unexplained deaths.

However, misunderstandings about COPFS’s responsibilities remain common. Over four in ten (44%) thought that COPFS decides on sentences for those found guilty of crime, and around 37% believed that COPFS represents victims of crime in court—neither of which are responsibilities of COPFS. Both of these measures have remained at a similar level since the questions were first introduced in 2018/19.

Have people had contact with COPFS and, if so, how satisfied were they with the way COPFS dealt with them?

Around one quarter (26%) of adults who had heard of COPFS reported that they had had contact with COPFS at some point, including for professional reasons. This has remained at a similar level since 2018/19 when the questions were first introduced.

The most common ways in which adults reported contact with COPFS in 2024/25 were:

• in another professional capacity (32%)
• as a witness of crime (30%)
• as a victim of crime (22%)
• as the accused (14%)

Other forms of contact are shown in Figure 9.1.

Among those who had contact with COPFS, around six in ten (63%) said they were satisfied with the way COPFS dealt with them the last time they had contact. Around one in five (22%) were dissatisfied, while around 14% said they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. Overall levels of satisfaction were broadly similar to recent survey years.

Figure 9.1. Three-fifths of adults who had contact with COPFS did so as either a witness or in another professional capacity.

Ways in which people had contact with COPFS.

Variable: QCOP5.