Status of all recommendations

COPFS should ensure that correspondence included with the witness citation in sheriff and jury cases makes clear how many days the witness may need to be available to attend court.

COPFS should review how citations are issued to witnesses who do not use English as a first language when they have been notified of this by Police Scotland.

COPFS should review how child witness citations issued for personal service are prepared, to ensure that police officers are aware that they are serving a citation on a child and allow compliance with the relevant Lord Advocate’s Guidelines.

COPFS should develop a process to ensure that autocite is not applied for witnesses whose evidence has concluded in summary trials that are part-heard.

COPFS should investigate why sheriff court citations are issued for personal service other than in accordance with business rules and ensure that remedial action is taken where necessary.

COPFS should:

(a) investigate why on-demand citations are issued and take steps to minimise their use;  

(b) take steps to quantify and monitor the number of on-demand citations issued; and 

(c) work with Police Scotland to ensure that information regarding on-demand citations is recorded on the Legal Document Database/Legal Document Exchange systems.

COPFS should:

(a) introduce and monitor the use of a single document in which all citation records and information are recorded; and

(b) ensure that staff consistently carry out checks on the citation position and record the citation status for each witness in COPFS case management systems.

COPFS should implement and monitor a process to ensure that when witnesses change address, citations are issued to the correct address and Police Scotland staff serving citations are notified of the new address.