WIREDGOV

An Official Statistics in Development publication for Scotland.

Overall, accused persons’ journey times in Scotland’s criminal justice system have decreased over the last year, according to new official statistics in development published today by Scotland’s Chief Statistician.

Median journey times (date an offence is first known to police to date of verdict) in 2024-25 were around 2 years 4 months in High court, 1 year 5 months in Sheriff solemn courts and 7 months in Sheriff summary court.

Compared to 2023-24, median journey times decreased by 1 month in High Court and Sheriff solemn court and by 11 days in Sheriff summary court.

The types of charges faced by an accused affects their journey time, with the longest times occurring for accused persons charged with sexual crimes in the High court where the median journey time was 2 years and 11 months.

Background

These new official statistics in development have been published in response to requests by Justice organisations for information about the length of different types of criminal justice system journey times. Further detail on data sources and the methodology used can be found here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/journey-times-in-the-scottish-criminal-justice-system-2024-25/

These official statistics in development are produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Further information on Crime and Justice statistics within Scotland is available.