Citing witnesses in the sheriff court

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Inspection reports

3rd March 2026

The aim of this inspection was to assess how effectively and efficiently prosecution witnesses are cited to give evidence in the sheriff court. This includes members of the public who have been the victim of a crime or who have witnessed a crime, as well as police and professional witnesses. The inspection has been carried out jointly by HM Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland (IPS) and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS), which has allowed us to consider the citation process from both a prosecution and policing perspective.

Direction

  1. We considered whether COPFS and Police Scotland have an effective vision, leadership and governance for the citation process. We found that absences of strategic focus, adequate governance and leadership on citation were common to both organisations.
COPFS citation strategy
  1. Citation of witnesses is not specifically considered in the current COPFS strategic plan,[55] which covers the years 2023-2027. This plan includes a strategic aim to continue to digitalise and modernise the work of COPFS. The organisation has made progress in this area, with digital defence agents service (DAS) and digital evidence sharing capability (DESC).[56] We found some evidence of increased digitalisation of processes that touch upon citation (for example, the Witness Gateway), but there was no overarching, cohesive citation strategy.
  1. The 2025-26 COPFS business plan[57] contains strategic aims that are relevant to the citation process. These include rollout of the police witness scheduler application (discussed further at paragraph 262) and improvement of the SPR. As mentioned previously, a COPFS performance measure for this period is to reduce citations in SCM courts by 25%. While senior staff we spoke to could not point to an overall citation strategy, there was a high level of awareness of the benefits of SCM in reducing the number of witnesses cited and re-cited – albeit this does not address the citation process.
  1. We considered COPFS internal local court business plans and found inconsistent reporting on the outcomes of aims and performance measures from one year to the next. As a result, it is difficult to assess how effective the COPFS local court function has been in achieving its aims. COPFS should have a consistent template for business plans, with a clear link between aims and targets from one year to the next.
  1. We noted many quantifiable commitments in the local court business plans that did not translate into performance measures in the same report. For example, the local court business plan 2025-26, states that COPFS will reduce personal citations issued to Police Scotland by 10% – but this figure does not then appear among the performance measures as targets at the conclusion of the plan.
Police Scotland citation strategy
  1. Police Scotland has a significant role in serving legal documents; this includes citations, but also indictments,[58] copy complaints,[59] and other types of legal documents. Despite this important function, we found that Police Scotland has no published national or local strategies for the service of legal documents and there is no mention of this in Police Scotland’s published reports including the most recent Annual Police Plan 2025/26.[60]
  1. Prior to the formation of Police Scotland in 2013, many legacy forces[61] employed civilian members of police staff to serve legal documents. In the early stages of Police Scotland, these police staff roles were made redundant and the responsibility for serving citations and other legal documents was returned to police officers.
  1. The lack of strategy for the service of legal documents is reflected in inconsistent approaches to the delivery of citations across the country, both between and within police divisions. We saw that some areas use light duty or modified duty officers, others use fully operational officers, and some use a mixture of both. In some divisions citations are passed to response officers to deliver on their shift. We heard of an operational enquiry unit in one division consisting of officers on modified duties who have a number of tasks, including serving citations. It was suggested to us that having dedicated officers to serve citations would allow for a consistent national approach.

Recommendation 3

COPFS and Police Scotland should:

(a) develop aligned, service-wide strategies for effective and efficient citation of witnesses, taking into account the needs of all categories of witness; and

(b) publish information about commitments to witnesses and what witnesses should expect in the citation process.

Leadership and governance – COPFS
  1. Despite the volume of citations issued by COPFS, we found an absence of effective leadership or governance of the process, and a vacuum of control. This may, in part, be due to the structure of COPFS. The relevant functions of COPFS responsible for the issue of citations include local court, which covers work in the sheriff and justice of the peace courts, the high court function and a specialist casework function.[62] We found there to be insufficient cross-function work on issues such as citation, and an absence of mechanisms to foster such work. We also found that there is no identifiable lead/(s) with overall responsibility for citations within COPFS and consequently no related reporting structure across functions that report on the topic.
  1. Senior leaders in COPFS recognise the need to modernise and improve the citation process. They variously described the legislation as being ‘nineteenth century’ and an inhibition to modernisation, and the citation process as ‘hugely wasteful’ and ‘not given the importance that it deserved’. Also, operational staff we spoke to were able to identify those areas of the citation process that had a negative impact upon witnesses.
  1. One senior COPFS administrator referred to the citation process as business-as-usual, until concerns were raised by Police Scotland in 2024 over the resourcing impact of police officers serving personal citations. As a result of these concerns, we learned about steps taken by COPFS to reduce the number of personal citations issued (this is discussed further at paragraph 99).
  1. Despite the views and knowledge of COPFS staff on the failings of the citation process, there was no clear oversight or centralised route to improve citation-related issues. We were often advised by COPFS staff of the benefits of SCM and consequent reduction in the number of citations issued. However, while reducing the amount of citations is undoubtedly beneficial, SCM addresses neither service improvement for those witnesses who still require to be cited, nor modernisation of the citation process. It is also relevant to note that SCM does not apply to sheriff and jury witness citations.
  1. The lack of leadership or governance may have contributed to a failure to identify a significant risk to the process. COPFS currently relies on second-class mail for delivery and return of postal citations. Despite repeated fines for Royal Mail over recent years for failing to meet delivery targets – and an announcement in July 2025[63] of a reduction in frequency of delivery for second-class mail services – we learned that this risk to timely delivery of citations had not been addressed by COPFS. At the time of our inspection, we were not made aware of any discernible plan to address this risk.
Leadership and governance – Police Scotland
  1. In this inspection, we found limited evidence of effective oversight by the Police Scotland Chief Officer Team, or the SPA, on the service of legal documents, including the service of citations.
  1. Within Police Scotland, Divisional Co-ordination Units (DCUs) provide local leadership on citations. The DCU leaders are responsible for raising any issues related to citations and court at local senior leadership team meetings. We also found that some divisions had held gold group (strategic level) meetings in response to situations or times where the numbers of citations they received had increased, particularly in the post-pandemic period.
  1. We found little evidence that either Police Scotland or SPA Forensic Services seek staff views on either the effectiveness of their approaches to dealing with citations, or work done regarding the national process of serving citations. In some divisions, we did find that some officers’ views had been canvassed to improve local processes for serving citations, but we also heard from officers who told us that service improvement suggestions had not been implemented. We observed that officers on modified duties who are solely serving citations often developed a good approach. However, while we saw examples of such good practice in local problem solving, there was no evidence that these initiatives were being looked at nationally for learning purposes, or to ensure continuity.

Recommendation 4

COPFS and Police Scotland should ensure that there is clear and effective leadership of the citation process that takes account of the respective internal structures of each organisation.

COPFS performance monitoring
  1. Performance data is a key indicator of effective governance or leadership for a high-volume process such as citation – i.e. who monitors such data and to whom it is reported. We learned that data on the total number of citations and re-citations issued is now routinely provided to senior staff in local court management to assist in monitoring the effectiveness of the SCM model of working – but not to all senior leaders in COPFS.
  1. We found limited and inconsistent knowledge of performance data on the citation process within COPFS, with no structure on who should monitor the data, when action would be required in the event of performance issues, and to whom such issues should be addressed. Such an absence of effective monitoring of a process that directly affects witnesses hundreds of thousands of times per year is a matter of concern. At the time of our inspection, COPFS did not routinely publish data on citations.
  1. We learned that the COPFS local court transformation team led on work with Police Scotland to reduce personal citations in response to police concerns. Unfortunately, given the current lack of overview of citations, lessons learned as part of this work will not necessarily be followed or implemented elsewhere in COPFS. This is illustrated in divergence of practice from local court to specialist units, and even within local offices where we found inconsistence with business rules on instructing the police to personally serve citations.
  1. COPFS is in the process of altering many aspects of how it operates through a programme known as Designed for Success (DFS). This programme is changing the structure of COPFS and updating its governance. This presents an opportunity for COPFS to address many of the issues and recommendations we have identified in respect of leadership and governance. It is important that issues that cross the internal functions of COPFS, such as citations, do not continue to fall through the gaps and that DFS takes account of them.
Police Scotland performance monitoring
  1. We did not find any evidence that the Police Scotland Chief Officer Team requests any information from local policing divisions regarding performance about serving citations, nor did we find evidence of the SPA seeking information regarding citation performance from Police Scotland. Furthermore, there was no evidence that Police Scotland publishes data related to the service of legal documents. The lack of performance management and governance about citations means that the workload, and the extent to which it impacts frontline policing, is not fully known, recognised or quantified.
  1. We identified that Police Scotland has access to a national performance management product, Power BI, which can draw citations data from the LDD. We did not find any evidence to show that Police Scotland always uses this effectively to manage or report on performance, or that it is widely known about at divisional level (some divisions still use a paper-based system). It was clear to us that, in terms of performance monitoring, the service of legal documents was not high on the list of priorities across Police Scotland.
Liaison between COPFS and Police Scotland
  1. Representatives from Police Scotland and COPFS meet regularly at the Criminal Justice Improvement Group, which is chaired by an Assistant Chief Constable. This group considers a variety of criminal justice topics including SPRs and citations, and as detailed elsewhere in this report has been instrumental in reducing the number of citations Police Scotland receives.
  1. We learned of routine liaison meetings at different seniority levels, across both organisations (both nationally and locally), which we understand provide a forum to raise citation issues. The pattern and frequency of meetings – and who attends them – is not regulated. Citation issues tended to be raised reactively at such meetings, rather than as a regular standing item. We found no clear structure to allow effective flow of information between local and national level. There were also no links between local meetings that we could identify. This may explain isolated pilots in local areas being introduced as responses to local operational difficulties, rather than a cohesive national approach.

Recommendation 5

COPFS and Police Scotland should ensure that information flows effectively between the framework of liaison meetings across both organisations at national and local levels, in order to manage the citation process consistently and comprehensively.

Understanding the needs of witnesses
  1. We noted an absence of effective systems across both organisations to take account of the needs of witnesses. While we are aware that both organisations regularly engage with third-sector agencies who represent witnesses, this has not been an adequate mechanism to identify the needs of all witnesses on the topic of citation, not least those who are vulnerable or may have additional needs. Given the high volume of citations issued and the cumulative impact of the process on the public it is essential that processes are fit for purpose and trauma-informed. Without improved engagement it is difficult to imagine how this can be achieved.
Understanding operating context
  1. COPFS and Police Scotland are the key organisations responsible for citing witnesses to court and it is therefore important that they are each aware of their respective operational frameworks, issues and challenges.
  1. Our review identified positive examples of constructive engagement and mutual understanding at both strategic and tactical levels. However, this was not replicated at operational levels within each organisation.
  1. During our interviews and focus groups with staff from COPFS and Police Scotland, we were struck by a lack of understanding of roles between the respective organisations. This became a recurrent theme during our inspection. Staff often failed to fully understand how their role operated as part of a wider citation process, or the interdependency between COPFS and Police Scotland. We observed that this lack of knowledge has contributed to negative perceptions between staff in each organisation.
  1. Interviews with Police Scotland senior leaders revealed some concerns that newer officers may lack awareness of the broader consequences of failing to serve witness citations, and particularly the impact on the justice system. Indeed, some frontline officers in our focus groups described how the task of delivering citations was seen as a low-priority administrative burden, often citing frustration that it interfered with their ability to carry out their many other responsibilities.
  1. Evidence from witnesses, including police witnesses, is a keystone of Scottish criminal procedure. This requires effective citation of witnesses, to secure their attendance at court and the giving of evidence itself. Service of citations and attendance at court are, therefore, essential elements of the police role. However, it is evident from our inspection findings that, for some police officers, these roles are viewed as supplementary to their duties rather than a fundamental element of them. It is vital to dispel such views and for police officers to fully understand the key role they play in the justice system, recognising that giving evidence and serving citations are part of their core functions.
  1. The focus groups and interviews conducted with Police Scotland officers revealed that some have limited knowledge about evidential requirements and processes, and the role of the procurator fiscal. This lack of clarity led to some officers questioning why COPFS sought further information and evidence once an SPR had been submitted, with many feeling such requests were unnecessary. Some officers mistakenly felt that statements were requested and that they were being cited to court needlessly. They believed their evidence was minimal, uncontroversial, or could have been agreed. There was a lack of appreciation that agreement of police evidence in cases was not at the sole discretion of the prosecutor. This will be discussed further at paragraph 236. There was also limited understanding about the need for certain information in the SPR, and the role of COPFS and of SCTS in the scheduling of cases. All of these erroneous views have the potential to impact upon the wider justice system if evidential requirements for court are not met. They can also result in frustration and resentment for both police officers and COPFS staff.
  1. We found that some COPFS staff did not adequately consider the impact of instructing police officers to serve a high volume of personal citations on witnesses, or how repeated requests for service of last-minute citations affected the ability of Police Scotland to respond to other operational duties. Some COPFS staff reported frustration that police officers were not prioritising the service of citations, or not responding to requests for updates on outstanding citations – without appreciation of the challenges that officers face.
  1. We also found that communication at the operational level, particularly for urgent or on-demand citations, is frequently impeded by limited direct interpersonal interaction and an over-reliance on email correspondence.
  1. We repeatedly heard positive comments about occasions when Police Scotland and COPFS were co-located in the same office building. We heard how helpful this was in terms of building relationships and increasing understanding between the two organisations.
  1. There was a recurring issue in routine communications from COPFS, where essential contact details were often omitted. This practice contributes to delays and inefficiencies, as Police Scotland officers are often unable to easily follow up or seek clarification on COPFS-directed enquiries. Similarly, there is currently no requirement for Police Scotland to provide contact details in SPRs, which can result in COPFS staff having to call 101 to reach officers. We understand that providing contact details will be a mandatory requirement for police officers in the new style SPR. Addressing these issues would significantly enhance operational effectiveness and reduce avoidable frustration among frontline personnel.
  1. We found evidence of frequent misrouting of citations from COPFS, which were sent to incorrect police stations due to confusion over Police Scotland divisional boundaries by COPFS. This results in delays of many days in serving citations on witnesses.

Recommendation 6

Recommendation 6

COPFS and Police Scotland should ensure that all relevant staff have a comprehensive understanding of the citation process, including the role of each organisation, the operating context and the impact of unsuccessful citation on the criminal justice system. This should include mandatory training as part of the induction process, and ongoing awareness training.

Understanding demand – COPFS
  1. As we have already noted, the citation process within COPFS is viewed as business-as-usual, with a lack of adequate leadership, governance or performance management. It is, therefore, unsurprising that we found no evidence of an ability to forecast demand, or an appreciation of the financial or operational demand for COPFS caused by the citation process. We also found no evidence of attempts to quantify how failures in the citation process created additional work or pressures, known as failure demand. Failure demand can be prevented by ensuring that work is effective on the first occasion it is carried out. In their last two thematic inspections[64] IPS has previously reported on the impact of failure demand within COPFS. COPFS must do more to ensure the organisation understands the extent of failure demand caused by ineffective processes, and work to reduce this.
  1. Throughout this inspection, we found that a lack of resources in COPFS local offices and national teams that deal with witness-related issues, has an impact on the citation process. As discussed elsewhere in this report, examples include:
  • correspondence and excusal requests not dealt with timeously and remaining unactioned in cases for many months
  • backlogs in case processing causing delays in courts being prepared – citation enquiries being made with police officers and countermands being issued to witnesses
  • limited management of citations between first diets and the trial diets in sheriff and jury cases
  • postal reply forms where the witness has indicated that they cannot attend, sitting unprocessed for a matter of weeks.
Understanding demand – Police Scotland
  1. We found that demand on Police Scotland is high due to the need to serve personal citations and the challenge of significant competing priorities. In our interviews with senior Police Scotland leaders, we were consistently told that serving citations was, organisationally, a low priority, since there was invariably always a higher priority. Such comments are an accurate representation of Police Scotland’s overall approach to serving witness citations.
  1. We identified a critical gap in the understanding and management of demand related to citation service. This gap is linked to the absence of a robust, organisation-wide performance management framework in this area.
  1. Local policing areas have developed varying models for citation delivery, shaped by their understanding of local needs, resource availability, and citation demand. Rather than applying a standard approach, differing models have emerged. While a one size fits all solution may not be suitable across diverse operational contexts, there is a need for a national framework for citation delivery.
  1. Despite these models addressing local needs, we found there still to be occasions where Police Scotland fell short, with citations not being served. This then contributes to delays and inefficiencies within the criminal justice system. We believe a focus on continuous service improvement will lead to improved levels of citation service. Modernisation of the citations process should reduce the number of citations needing to be delivered by personal service, so efforts could be concentrated on those citations that are the most challenging to serve.
  1. In our fieldwork, we heard from some police officers that officers working in busy urban areas are cited more frequently than colleagues in rural locations, due to the higher volume of incidents there. In a previous inspection,[65] HMICS had also raised concerns about the high number of citations that officers working in road policing roles receive which, given the nature of their job, can be in courts throughout Scotland. A higher number of citations – coupled with ineffective court scheduling – has an impact on the number of police rest or annual leave days that are cancelled, and the number of excusals that officers have to request.
  1. We learned that SPA Forensics do not monitor the number of citations received nationally, or the number of related court attendances. They are therefore unable to quantify in a meaningful way the demand citation places upon its service. The processes for citation of forensic scientists are further discussed at paragraph 383.
  1. As is the case with COPFS, we found there to be a recognition that failure demand is caused by current citation processes across Police Scotland. However, there is an absence of understanding of how much citation volume and additional work is attributable to failure demand.
  1. Police Scotland has recently explored the demand associated with the service of citations and police officer attendance at court. In October 2024, Police Scotland’s Service Design Team conducted an internal review to better understand the key factors driving demand for the service of citations. This led to discussions with COPFS to attempt to reduce the volume of personal citations.
  1. We found a clear aspiration by Police Scotland to significantly reduce demand associated with the service of citations and police officer attendance at court. However, there is no evidence that this objective has been integrated into future Target Operating Models (TOMs). Specifically, in relation to the SCM pilot, limited effort was made at the outset of the pilot to identify, capture and cost projected business benefits. Neither did the SPA seek sight of a business case for SCM. Despite the pilot now being rolled out nationally, Police Scotland appears to be retrospectively identifying benefits and gathering learning from the pilot phase. This lack of strategic approach is a matter of concern, as Police Scotland is now rolling out what was a local pilot to a national business-as-usual model, without fully considering the projected business benefits or risks.
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