Parliament

Key aspects of the wide-ranging Courts Reform (Scotland) Bill – which is aimed at reforming the Scottish civil court processes – have been questioned by the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee in a report published on 9 May.

The Bill contains a range of measures, including the creation of a new judicial office of Summary Sheriff to cover a more restricted range of civil and criminal matters, and the establishment of a specialist Scotland-wide court, initially intended to deal with personal injury cases.

However, in welcoming the general principles of the Bill, the committee raised concerns about the proposals to increase the monetary threshold for an action in the sheriff court from £5,000 to £150,000.

Committee Convener Christine Grahame MSP said: “There can be no doubt from the evidence we heard that reform of the Scottish civil court system is long overdue. However, our committee is not convinced that some of the measures in the Bill will necessarily achieve what is hoped.

“Improving access to justice is a key part of the Courts Reform (Scotland) Bill. Freeing up the Court of Session to deal with the most complex and serious cases is a step in the right direction. However, raising the monetary threshold from £5,000 to the proposed £150,000 raised questions about whether this is too great a leap.

“Not only would these reforms perhaps restrict access to counsel, but there are concerns about the capacity of sheriff courts to deal with the increase in cases. Our committee recommends that the Scottish Government give serious consideration to lowering the monetary limit.”

The Ministry of Justice was one of the government departments scrutinised by the Commons Public Accounts Committee in the preparation of its report into the contracting out of government services to the private sector.

It was the committee’s 47th report of the Parliamentary session and was based on evidence from contractors Atos, Capita, G4S and Serco, together with the Cabinet Office, the Department of Health, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Justice. It came in the wake of a number of high-profile revelations regarding the provision of such services, not least to the MoJ.

The committee’s chair, Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP (pictured), said: "Private provision of public services has become big business, with half of all public spending on goods and services going to private providers of contracted-out services. We believe Government needs to urgently get its house in order so that this expenditure is properly open to public scrutiny, and that measures are put in place which will improve services and secure a better deal for the taxpayer.

“Recent scandals illustrate the failure of some contractors to live up to expected standards. These include the astonishing news that G4S and Serco had been overcharging the Ministry of Justice on their electronic tagging contracts for eight years, including claiming for ex-offenders who had actually died – and the complete hash that G4S made of supplying security guards for the Olympics.

“These failures have also exposed serious weaknesses in the Government’s ability to negotiate and manage contracts with private companies on our behalf.”

She outlined three measures to ensure transparency which, she said, would allow Parliament and the public to follow the taxpayers’ pound to ensure value for money. They were:

• The extension of Freedom of Information to public contracts with private providers

• Access rights for the National Audit Office

• A requirement for contractors to open their books up to scrutiny by officials

“The four private contractors we met – G4S, Atos, Serco and Capita – all told us they were prepared to accept these measures. It therefore appears that the main barriers to greater transparency lie within Government itself,” she said.

The report pointed out that government spends £187bn on goods and services with third parties each year, around half of which is estimated to be on contracting out services. It brought together evidence from two hearings on contracting out government services, which were held on the basis of reports by the National Audit Office (NAO).

The report concluded: “Government is clearly failing to manage performance across the board, and to achieve the best for citizens out of the contracts into which they have entered. Government needs a far more professional and skilled approach to managing contracts and contractors, and contractors need to demonstrate the high standards of ethics expected in the conduct of public business, and be more transparent about their performance and costs.”

Significantly, the report said, the contracting process at present excludes SMEs, and therefore the innovation which could be generated by a wider group of suppliers is not available to Government.

“So far, the contracting out of services has led to the evolution of privately-owned public monopolies, who largely, or in some cases wholly, rely on taxpayers’ money for their income. The state is then constrained in finding alternatives where a big private company fails.”

In a report on the Ministry of Justice’s contract for language services published on 22 January, the National Audit Office – body that scrutinises public spending for Parliament and which is independent of government – says it had found that progress has been made in implementing many of the recommendations made by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in December 2012. However, the report says, there are a number of areas where the Ministry and its contractor Capita still need to improve.

According to the NAO: “The Ministry is now performing audit checks of the security status of interpreters and some data generated by Capita. In addition, the number of interpreters available to work under the contract has increased significantly; spending outside the contract has decreased substantially for civil courts and tribunals; and the Ministry now routinely collects and monitors management information.”

However, the report states that Capita is still not meeting the target to fulfil 98% of bookings of interpreters and performance fell temporarily by 8% between December 2012 and April 2013 as a result of Capita reducing mileage payments to interpreters. Capita fulfilled over 94% of bookings in November 2013, which is similar to performance a year earlier. 

“The work the Ministry has undertaken has not established whether, and if so to what extent, there is an on-going problem with the recording of customer cancellations, although it has just introduced 100% checks of these bookings,” the report says. It also reports that more than twice as many Tier 3 interpreters are being used under the contract since the NAO last reported. Tier 3 interpreters are those that have formalised basic training plus experience in the public sector, but not the formal qualifications and public sector interpreting experience required for either Tiers 1 or 2.

The Ministry has also been slow to implement some PAC recommendations. A new assessment system for interpreters has not been implemented and an independent review of quality standards has not yet been performed.

Former DPP Keir Starmer QC will advise the Labour Party on the introduction, if it wins power in 2015, of a new law to protect victims while giving evidence in court. He called it a “golden opportunity to recast the criminal justice system as a criminal justice service fit for victims”.

According to an announcement from the party, Labour’s plans for a radical shake up of the justice system with the introduction of the country’s first ever ‘Victims’ Law’ are taking another step closer.

The proposed new law will give victims of crime new entitlements to minimum standards of service, as well as the ability to hold those services to account when standards are not met.

According to the statement: “The Victims’ Law will be an Act of Parliament and will set out in one document the rights and entitlements for victims, all with real teeth. This will replace the Government’s toothless Code of Conduct which is unenforceable and won’t deliver the culture change needed.”

It is likely to include a new right to be kept fully informed of progress in the investigation of crimes, new protections for vulnerable victims facing cross-examination and the ability to demand a single point of contact, rather than being passed from pillar to post.

The former DPP has agreed to chair a ‘Victims’ Taskforce’ to bring forward proposals for exactly what should be included in such a law. The taskforce will also include Labour Peer Doreen Lawrence and Peter Neyroud, former Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police and a criminologist at Cambridge University.

Keir Starmer QC said: “I am delighted to be involved in this crucial piece of work. Victims are entitled to have their rights clearly set out and enforced by a victims’ law. This is a golden opportunity to recast the criminal justice system as a criminal justice service fit for victims. But it will only succeed if there is an attitude-shift across criminal justice. Those delivering criminal justice have been on the back foot for far too long when it comes to victims’ rights.”

Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan MP declared: “Our police and our courts rely on the confidence of victims. We need them to come forward, report crimes and give evidence. But too often they are at best taken for granted and at worst treated with contempt.

“At the moment, there are a variety of codes and charters across various Government agencies which are toothless, confusing and inadequate. Whether it’s the father of Milly Dowler treated in court like a criminal, the 13-year-old victim of sexual abuse labelled a ‘sexual predator’ by a judge, or the victim only finding out their attacker has been released from prison by bumping into them in the supermarket, our justice system is failing too many victims.

“Labour is no longer prepared to tolerate this. Victims represent some of society’s most vulnerable people; that’s why we need nothing short of a transformation if we are to deliver a criminal justice service that supports members of the public who have been innocent victims of crime through no fault of their own.

“I’m delighted that Keir Starmer has agreed to chair a taskforce to set out plans to make this happen. As former Director of Public Prosecutions, he knows better than anyone the reforms the justice service needs in order to put victims at its heart.”