Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: factsheet

Victim Notification Scheme

This page provides more information on the measures in the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill that make changes to the existing statutory scheme of information for victims known as the Victim Notification Scheme (VNS). 

It covers:

• background on the VNS and its reform
• what the provisions in the Bill do
• other planned changes to the VNS

Background

The VNS consists of three schemes:

• Victims of offenders sentenced to 18 months or more imprisonment have the right to receive information about the release of an offender (unless exceptional circumstances apply), and some of those victims have the right to make representations when decisions are made on release on licence. This is sometimes referred to as the criminal justice VNS.
• Victims of patients in the forensic mental health system subject to a Compulsion Order and Restriction Order are entitled to similar rights to information and to make representations. This is referred to as the CORO VNS.

• Victims of offenders sentenced to fewer than 18 months are entitled to more limited information about an offender’s release upon request. This is the Victim Information Scheme (VIS).

The VNS is an opt-in, multi-agency scheme. Victims may choose to join the VNS at any time after the offender has been convicted and sentenced.  Where a direct victim of an offence has died, certain relatives may be eligible to join the scheme instead. 

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) notifies victims by letter of their potential entitlement to join the VNS.  Notifications themselves are sent by the Scottish Prison Service VNS team or the Scottish Government’s CORO VNS team. The Parole Board for Scotland, the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland and the Scottish Government’s CORO VNS team facilitate the right of eligible victims to make representations.  Victim support organisations provide support and assistance to victims, or relatives of a victim, who have joined the VNS.

Review and reform of the VNS

In March 2022, the Scottish Government commissioned an independent review of the VNS, to ensure that the overall scheme is fit for purpose and is serving victims effectively. The review formed part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to transform how justice services are delivered, which includes putting the voices of victims and a trauma-informed approach at the heart of Scottish justice. 

The review’s report, supplement to the report, and an easy read version of the report were published in May 2023. The review made 22 main recommendations that cover all three branches of the VNS.  Its key innovation was to recommend a new victim contact team that would deliver a new automatic referral function as well as victim information entitlements.  The new function would involve eligible victims being referred to the team for a supported conversation about whether to join the VNS.

We published our respose to the review in October 2024. This was shaped by the initiatives highlighted by the review and referred to in its recommendations, by wider programmes of change that seek to transform the justice system, and from extensive engagement with victim support organisations and operational partners.  In the response, the Scottish Government accepted the majority of the review’s recommendations, including those relating to the new team and its functions.

The Scottish Government also indicated in the response that it intended to amend the Bill at Stage 2 to deliver elements of VNS reform that require primary legislation. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs and the Minister for Victims and Community Safety wrote to the Criminal Justice Committee on 4 March 2025, providing a summary of amendments that were being lodged at Stage 2, and intentions for amendments at Stage 3 of the Bill.  Collectively, this package of amendments will play a significant role in reforming the VNS.

Other elements of VNS reform which stem from recommendations from the review which do not require legislation are being taken forward by Scottish Government in partnership with operational partners and victim support organisations. This work is being joined up, as appropriate, with work delivering recommendations that require legislative changes.

What the Bill does

The VNS provisions added to the Bill at Stage 2 are targeted at delivering structural reform of the VNS. They involve:

• amalgamation of the criminal justice VNS and VIS, providing all eligible victims with access to the greater range of rights available under the criminal justice VNS, regardless of the length of sentence handed down to the offender

• the creation of a discretionary data sharing provision between the Lord Advocate and Scottish Ministers, for the purposes of enabling the Scottish Ministers to deliver the VNS.  This will support the sharing of victim information between the COPFS and Scottish Ministers so that victims can have a supported conversation with the new team about joining the VNS.
• a range of reforms to the CORO VNS which include the following:
  • include persons who are subject to a compulsion order and restriction order, transfer for treatment direction or hospital direction within the Scottish Ministers’ functions for the purposes of the standards of service in relation to victims and witnesses. This will align reporting standards across the Victim Notification Schemes.
  • enable registered victims to receive information through the CORO VNS, in the case where that patient has transferred out of Scotland, been made subject to corresponding measures, and subsequently transferred back into Scotland where they are treated as subject to a CORO in relation to the same offence.
  • ensure that where a victim has been afforded the opportunity to make representations under section 17B of the 2003 Act, they should be informed of the outcome of that decision.
  • create a power to vary what is a “relevant condition” to a victim for the purposes of conditional discharge of a CORO patient.   
  • ensure that victims will be told about the first occasion an offender is granted unescorted suspension of detention when this allows the offender to leave hospital grounds unescorted for the first time.

Further intended amendments

As explained in the letter to the Criminal Justice Committee from the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs and the Minister for Victims and Community Safety dated 4 March, the Scottish Government anticipates lodging further amendments to the Bill on the VNS at Stage 3 which amend details of the VNS.  This are subject to ongoing consideration but may cover:

• the VNS and UNCRC child victim compatibility.
• nomination of a person by a victim to receive information under the VNS on their behalf.
• expansion of the VNS where a person is sentenced to detention in secure care to deliver a broader package of range of rights for victims.
• if a victim has died or is incapax, the eligibility of other parties to receive VNS information in the event of the death or incapacity of a victim beyond the current strict hierarchy of eligible relatives.
• a regulation-making power to enable Scottish Ministers to add provisions on temporary release to the information currently available under the VNS.
• the information available to victims where a cross-border transfer of an offender takes place (and an ancillary information power), including deportations.

Funding and delivery

As explained above, provisions relating to the VNS are linked to a separate but related package of work being taken forward to deliver VNS review recommendations that do not need legislation.  The legislative and administration strands of work are being drawn together to ensure a cohesive and holistic approach to VNS reform. 

The two distinct strands of work mean that the costs of delivering VNS reform remain subject to ongoing consideration in collaboration with partners, including criminal justice agencies whose processes are likely to be directly impacted by changes to the VNS. 

We recognise the need to explore the resource implications of process change with partners, as well as acknowledging that our aspirations for reforming the VNS in a truly meaningful way are likely to attract one-off implementation costs.  However, our ambition for the overall programme of VNS reform is that it should introduce a digital-first approach that will create both better victim experiences of the VNS and more cost-effective and efficient approaches to delivering victims’ rights under the scheme.