witnesses

This Act of Scottish Parliament creates the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner. It is the Commissioner's responsibility to investigate any complaints about the conduct of a member of the Parliament.

The Act is in four parts. Part 1 describes the appointment, functions and directions of the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner; Part 2 details the provisions for investigation of complaints; Parts 3 and 4 contain general and supplementary information.

This resource is a reference card with step-by-step advice for witnesses about the protocol expected in court.

This resource is the appendices to the two volume Guidance for Vulnerable or Intimidated Witnesses, including Children.

Consultation document that contains individual sections on a system of integrated support for child witnesses, guidance on investigative interviewing, the provision of pre-court therapy, the conduct of court familiarisation visits, the questioning of children in court, and a format for communicating information about child witnesses throughout the legal process.

The Crown Prosecution Service, the Department of Health and the Home Office have worked together to produce this guidance. The guidance is issued as part of the Action For Justice programme by which the Home Office is coordinating the implementation of the various measures for witnesses recommended in Speaking Up For Justice.

This statement sets out the Scottish Executive’s policy for changes to the law of evidence and related aspects of court procedure, directed at providing specific help to vulnerable witnesses. It examines how the existing supports available to vulnerable witnesses could be improved.

The ‘Memorandum of Good Practice on Video Recorded Interviews with Child Witnesses for Criminal Proceedings’ was published in 1992 to provide guidance to police officers and social workers responsible for undertaking video-recorded interviews with child victims or witnesses. The document outlined core principles to be followed when conducting interviews; the video could then be played in court to spare the child the necessity of giving live examination-in-chief.

The Government is committed to improving the protection during the criminal justice process for vulnerable or intimidated witnesses, including children. This document is issued as part of ‘Action for Justice’, the implementation programme for the ‘Speaking Up for Justice’ report. Following the report, the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 set out a range of special measures to assist vulnerable or intimidated witnesses, including children to give their best evidence in criminal proceedings.

In June 1998 the Government published “Speaking up for Justice”, a report of an Interdepartmental Working Group on the treatment of Vulnerable or Intimidated Witnesses in the Criminal Justice System. It proposed a coherent and integrated scheme to provide appropriate support and assistance for vulnerable or intimidated witnesses. This is a summary report of the key recommendations, legislation and implementation.

The Department of Health, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Home Office have worked together to produce this practice guidance. The guidance is issued as part of the Home Office led Action for Justice programme, which said that good practice guidance on the provision of therapy prior to trial for vulnerable or intimidated adult witnesses would be issued.