SG/2026/56: Reform of the Victim Notification Scheme: report for Parliament - March 2026

Introduction

The Victim Notification Scheme

The current Victim Notification Scheme (VNS) entitles victims of offenders sentenced to 18 months of more (or close relatives of those victims) to certain information about the offender such as the date of the offender’s release.

There is a separate but similarly framed scheme for victims of people detained in hospital under a Compulsion Order and Restriction Order (CORO).

For victims who wish to do so, the VNS also offers the opportunity to contribute to certain decisions taken whilst the offender is in prison or detained in hospital under a CORO, including decisions on release.

The Victim Information Scheme (VIS) is available for victims of offenders who are sentenced to less than 18 months’ imprisonment. Victims who sign up to the VIS are currently entitled to know only the date of the release (and, if the offender is released subject to licence conditions, any conditions imposed for the protection of the victim) or date of escape of the offender.

The independent review of the VNS

In 2022, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans commissioned a review of the VNS. The independent review was carried out by Alistair MacDonald and Fiona Young and their report on the VNS was published on 12 May 2023. It made 22 main recommendations, many of which encompassed multiple recommendations. The Scottish Government response to the review was published in October 2024.

In that response we agreed, or agreed in principle, with most of the recommendations. We also set out two key priorities for reform which will deliver transformational change of the VNS: firstly, to make the changes which needed primary legislation through what is now the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 (the 2025 Act), and secondly, establishment of a victim contact team (the VCT) which will provide personalised support and underpin delivery of a new automatic referral process for victims. This process of automatic referral will result in all victims being referred directly to the VCT for a trauma-informed discussion about joining the VNS in order to support their decision-making.

We also committed to collaborating with Victim Support Organisations (VSOs) and justice partners across the full programme of VNS reform, as well as continuing to listen to the voice of victims to ensure their experiences continue to inform how the VNS works.

Legislative reforms

Our approach to legislative reform of the VNS is aligned to the Scottish Government’s Vision for Justice, which aims to have in place trauma-informed approaches to justice which victims can trust. Our ambition is that the VNS:

• meets victims’ needs by upholding and enhancing their rights to information as set out in the Victims Code for Scotland.
• is delivered in a person-centred way that minimises the risk of re-traumatisation.
• is operationally effective, ensuring victim confidence and trust.

It was clear from consulting stakeholders about the recommendations from the VNS review that there was shared appetite for delivering the VNS reforms which required legislation as quickly as possible. Therefore, we took the opportunity to amend the law governing the VNS through the 2025 Act. Reform of the VNS fitted with the Act’s core aims to:

• put victims and witnesses at the heart of a modern and fair justice system through changes to culture, process and practice across the system (of which VNS is one part).
• help to ensure victims are heard, supported, protected and treated with understanding.

We wrote to Parliament on 4 March 2025 to set out our plans for lodging amendments on the VNS at Stages 2 and 3 of what became the 2025 Act when passed on 17 September 2025. The Act included all the amendments to the VNS outlined in that letter and these sections of the Act will be brought into force in a phased way.

These sections are the critical underpinning for all VNS reforms, in line with the VNS review. They will deliver transformational change to the way victims interact with the scheme, as well as ensuring a more trauma-informed approach to how victims can join the scheme, alongside changes that will enable victims to receive more meaningful information under the VNS.

The Annex sets out the review’s recommendations, our position on each recommendation, and, where relevant, the associated provision in the 2025 Act which delivers the recommendation.

Through the 2025 Act we have:

• Introduced a permission to cooperate between the Lord Advocate and the Scottish Ministers for the purposes of the VNS. This was needed so victims can be automatically referred to the VCT (once operational) by allowing the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) to share details of victims eligible to join the scheme with the VCT, who will then have a supported conversation with the victim about joining the VNS.
• Removed the current distinction between the information that a victim can receive based on the length of custodial sentence handed down. Following discussion with stakeholders, we concluded that victims should have consistent information rights, rather than the extent of the information available being driven by an offender’s sentence length. We therefore went further than recommendation 15 of the independent review.
• Introduced greater flexibility and discretion about who can join the VNS where a victim has died or is incapacitated. At present those who can receive information in these circumstances is based on a rigid hierarchical list. This will change to being based on the nature of a person’s relationship with the victim, underpinned by a Code of Practice. Further flexibility is also provided for through a regulation-making power that enables Scottish Ministers to change the number of people who can join the VNS where a victim has died.
• Changed the way child victims can join VNS to be child centred. Rather than the decision on whether a child can themselves join the scheme being solely based on the age of the child (as it is now), the decisions on whether a child victim can themselves join will take account of the child’s age, views and bests interests. There will be more flexibility to allow better support to child victims as their parent or carer can join with the child or on the child’s behalf or another person with a relationship to the child can join on the child’s behalf. Guidance on how such decisions will be made will be included in a Code of Practice.
• Provided for better support for those who may wish another person to obtain the information on the victim’s behalf. Victims will be able to nominate a person to receive information under the VNS on their behalf, or at the same time as the victim.
• Provided for more information to be given to victims where the offender or patient (for those under a CORO) is transferred out of Scotland. This will in future include information about where the offender has been transferred to, and information about victim’s rights in these circumstances. When a prisoner is transferred to a prison in Scotland, we will take steps to provide information to victims about their VNS rights. To support that, the Scottish Ministers will be able to cooperate for VNS purposes with persons with equivalent functions to the VNS in other jurisdictions. This cross-border package delivers, and goes beyond, what was recommended in the VNS review.
• Established greater oversight and reporting on the CORO VNS by including it in the standards of service for victims and witnesses.
• Ensured equity of rights across system. This aims to ensure where an offender is a child and has been sentenced to detention in secure accommodation, victims can access the same rights to information available where the offender is an adult and sentenced to custody in a Young Offenders’ Institution or prison.
• We have also provided for the following new categories of information to be provided to victims:
• For the VNS, enabling more information to be given to a victim alongside core VNS information, ensuring a more trauma-informed approach by providing valuable context to victims.
• For CORO VNS, victims in future can be told about the fact no order has been made by the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland, and the outcome of an appeal by the person subject to the CORO where there has been an appeal against a recall to hospital.

We have ensured that the VNS will be future proofed as follows:

• We have provided for more flexibility so we can make further changes to the information available in cases of temporary release and unescorted suspension of detention, and the right of victims to make representations in these cases by way of secondary legislation. This goes beyond what was recommended in the VNS review, by ensuring that parallel or similar changes can be made:
• For victims of people subject to a CORO, where unescorted suspension of detention is the broad equivalent of temporary release from prison.
• Where the offender is a child sentenced to detention in secure accommodation, where temporary releases operate differently.
• We will be able to make regulations to oblige persons to cooperate with Scottish Ministers for the purposes of the VNS. This lays the groundwork for a potential future expansion of the VNS in line with victims’ evolving needs, as well as ensuring existing provisions can operate effectively.

We have already laid regulations which brought sections 35(1), 35(3) and 35(4) into force in on 19 March 2026. This will provide victims with rights to make representations in certain circumstances where an offender is being considered for release on licence.

What we will do next

In order to ensure victims’ voices are embedded into implementation of the VNS provisions in secondary legislation, we will seek views of stakeholders and those with lived experience. We intend do this by consulting on:

• the Code of Practice that will underpin new discretionary decision-making by the Scottish Ministers around who can join the VNS where the victim has died or is incapacitated, or where the victim is a child.
• potential changes to the information available in cases of temporary release from prison or secure accommodation, or unescorted suspension of detention from a hospital, and any associated rights to make representations.
• the need to prescribe any new bodies to place them under a duty to cooperate with the Scottish Ministers for the purposes of the VNS.

We also intend to seek views about further implementation of section 14 of the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act 2023 which allowed a victim to nominate a VSO to receive VNS information on their behalf or at the same time as them. However, a victim support organisation must meet certain criteria, including being prescribed in regulations. We will therefore work with VSOs to establish which victim support organisations should be prescribed in regulations over and above those already prescribed to ensure that victims have greater choice in how the VNS works for them.

We also need to align commencement of the VNS provisions in the 2025 Act and any changes in secondary legislation with wider reforms to how the VNS is operated as there are aspects of the legislative reforms which will be best delivered through the VCT. This will ensure that we provide victims with the most person-centred and trauma-informed service.

The Victim Contact Team (the VCT)

In our formal response last year, we agreed the recommendation that victims should be automatically referred to a Victim Contact Team / the ‘VCT’, which should be managed by, or report to, the Scottish Government’s Justice Directorate, for a trauma-informed discussion about their options on registering for the VNS, their rights and key information.

The VCT will therefore be a key innovation which will allow supported and informed decision making by victims so they may exercise their rights to information under the VNS and the CORO VNS which are right for them and at the right time. The VCT will be established with the needs of victims at its heart and based on trauma informed principles. We will therefore need to consult with Victim Support Organisations and those who have lived experience.

We intend to create a service that is simple, clear, and easy for victims to navigate, ensuring that appropriate support can be put in place at the right time. This will require work with VSOs and partners to ensure that referral pathways and continuity of support can be maintained whilst victims make decisions about receiving information about the offender in their case. As recommended in the report we will therefore work closely with the delivery partners and VSOs to provide a personalised service for victims.

We consider that the VCT will be the best way to the delivery many of the legislative changes. For instance, we consider, at this stage, the changes around eligibility for joining the VNS where a victim has died or is incapacitated, or where a victim who wishes to join the scheme is a child, will be best delivered by the bespoke team. We have therefore put in place a project to support the integration of VNS reform with the VCT.

Other Related Innovations - Justice Digital Front Door

The VCT is one of several innovations being developed to improve how victims receive information from criminal justice services. The review’s report mentioned the Witness Portal being developed by Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

Since the report, we have begun work on a proof‑of‑concept project known as the “Justice Digital Front Door.” to provide victims and witnesses with a clear, end to end visibility of their justice journey. This will explore the ambition of creating a trusted, secure and user‑friendly web-based entry point to a portal for victims and witnesses in order to provide the right information and support at the right time so they feel clarity, control and confidence in the justice system. The concept aims to provide victims with easier access to the information they need to navigate the justice system, including receiving updates in a trauma‑informed way. While this remains an aspiration rather than a guaranteed future service, we will ensure that the work to establish the VCT is aligned with the learning emerging from the Justice Digital Front Door proof of concept.

Delivering a VCT

To deliver our ambitions for the VCT, we are working closely with VSOs and criminal justice partners to craft the structure of the VCT and ensure these organisations are embedded in the delivery of the VCT.

In March 2025 we met with key delivery partners - including Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Scottish Prison Service, the Parole Board for Scotland, and the Victim Support Organisations Victim Support Scotland, Children First and Scottish Women’s Aid - at an introductory workshop to develop a shared organisational vision for the VCT.

Several themes emerged as essential to shaping the VCT:

• the need for a simple, intuitive, and well‑understood service.
• clear and consistent communication delivered in human language and tailored to individual needs.
• dedicated support pathways for children and young people, aligned with recovery‑focused models such as Bairns’ Hoose.

Participants also highlighted the importance of:

• integrated referral routes to victim‑support services,
• a clear and consistent identity for the VNS (including consideration of renaming the VCT),
• meaningful opportunities for engagement and feedback, including face‑to‑face options,
• flexibility for victims in how and when they receive information, and
• central, authoritative website providing clear guidance, timescales and real‑time updates.

We then held a second workshop in June 2025, again with the delivery partners and VSOs to examine an approach to referrals of victims to the VCT. We recognise the crucial importance of collaboration on development of this process, which will ensure a trauma-informed approach that empowers each victim to make the best choice for themselves.

Through these workshops, and further discussion with partners, we identified the clear priority challenge we need to meet is how to ensure information can flow between the different criminal justice partners and the VCT to allow it to fulfil its role of contacting all eligible victims and then providing them with the information in accordance with their preferences. This is complex, as not one single criminal justice partner holds all the relevant information and the various digital systems which hold information do not interact with one another to allow this to be done automatically.

We need to tackle the data flow challenge first and foremost. We have therefore commissioned a business analyst whose remit is to support the development of a trauma‑informed, accessible and effective service by defining the key processes, data architecture, digital requirements and cost implications needed for delivery. The priority is to map data flows across justice organisations and the contact team, setting out the data‑sharing requirements, ensuring data protection compliance and identifying methods for gathering structured victim feedback to inform continuous improvement.

Building on this, the business analyst will define end‑to‑end processes for victims and contact‑team staff, including mental‑health pathways and referral mechanisms, ensuring these are clear, consistent and aligned with trauma‑informed principles. Digital requirements will be specified for a future case management system and secure communication channels, taking account of existing systems and opportunities offered by the Justice Digital Front Door. Finally, we will consider the costing of the VCT based on this information to cover team setup, IT development, operational processes and training.

We anticipate this work will be completed in the first half of 2026. Once this stage concludes, we will assess the options for costs, sequencing and overall timelines for bringing the VCT into full operational capability. This will ensure that implementation is both sustainable and aligned with broader justice‑sector digital developments, including the Justice Digital Front Door.

Costs of a VCT

The VNS Review indicated that costs for the VCT could be met through redistributing opportunity costs from the existing VNS and we will seek to identify and maximise such costs as we design the system and the VCT. However, there will be ongoing and significant delivery costs which will fall to the Scottish Government and will not come from redistributing costs from elsewhere, alongside potential implementation costs for criminal justice partners. It is of course the choice of the victim whether or not to join the VNS and funding of the team will be required to be considered on the basis of the numbers of victims who will not only be contacted to discuss joining, but also the numbers of victims who subsequently join the scheme. While increased automation of data transfer should help minimise these costs, we expect that the reforms will lead to an increase in the number of victims who wish to join the scheme, and this will be factored into our overall costings.

The VCT will be a newly established team, and we will therefore need to undertake recruitment and provide the right training and guidance. We will also need to put in place a case management system that is fit for purpose. Our approach will be grounded in strong data‑protection principles, including the development of clear data‑sharing agreements.

Timescales

A phased approach will be necessary to keep continuity for people registered with the existing VNS, whilst ensuring that the VCT will support the delivery of improvements to the VNS. As indicated, this will also need to reflect the way in which the VNS provisions in the 2025 Act are being commenced.

It is our intention to have a first iteration of the VCT operating in 2027.