Covid-19: Court duty plans re-started for five additional custody courts re-opening

We have updated the court duty plans for the five additional custody courts that the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (SCTS) announced last week were re-opening on Wednesday 3 June 2020.

The five courts and the business they will deal with are:

• Livingston
• Kirkcaldy (Dunfermline)
• Greenock (Dunoon)
• Dumbarton (Oban, Campbeltown)
• Airdrie (Lanark).

Plans re-started following discussion with Law Society

We had already been in discussions with the Law Society about the operation of the duty plans in the areas where courts are opening up.

It was agreed that the fairest way to ensure that no firms were being disadvantaged was to effectively re-start the duty plans when the courts opened, as they were at the end of March, and follow the same sequence thereafter.

This is the approach we will take to any further court re-openings.

The amended duty plans for these areas have now been issued and have been updated on our website.

Video link between custody centres and courts

The SCTS has introduced the capability to allow custodies to be heard by video link between police custody centres and courts.

They continue to work with COPFS and Police Scotland to increase the capacity which will allow up to 34 concurrent video links between the courts and police custody centres with the longer term aim to conduct all custodies via video link.

Remote representation by telephone is available for solicitors who wish to represent client who will be appearing in court by video from the Police Custody Centre.

For more information, please contact:

Kingsley Thomas, Head of Criminal Legal Assistance, by email.