Committee expresses impatience over delay to three-year justice plan

Scotland’s director-general of justice has been told to publish a delayed three-year plan for the sector following “impatience” from a Holyrood committee.

Neil Rennick, the Scottish Government’s director-general for education and justice, gave evidence to the Public Audit Committee on Thursday after a watchdog report warned court backlogs for the most serious crimes may not be cleared for another three years.

The report by Auditor General Stephen Boyle condemned the delay to the three-year delivery plan, which was first expected in August 2022 and then the summer of 2023.

The plan is “critical for ensuring work continues to modernise the criminal justice system”, according to Mr Boyle.

Mr Rennick told the committee the delay had been due to “significant uncertainty” caused by soaring inflation, adding it “would not have been responsible for us to publish a three-year delivery plan at a time that justice organisations’ budgets were under significant uncertainty and significant pressure”.

However, he said: “The decision not to progress with the delivery plan has no impact on the court recovery plan or dealing with the backlogs.”

Conservative committee member Graham Simpson branded the explanation a “rather pathetic excuse”, and he demanded a timeline for publication of the plan.

Committee convener Richard Leonard said: “I do find it quite unusual to hear the preparation and implementation of a three-year delivery plan has been an irresponsible act.

“I think most of us would view that as being the responsible thing to do.

“The committee’s view, I’m sure, would be that we want to see a delivery plan because that gives some concrete sense of the direction of travel, and I don’t know about you Mr Rennick, I don’t know what the rate of inflation is going to be in two or three years’ time, but I still have to make plans based on reasonable assumptions or otherwise.

“I think there is a degree of impatience, certainly in the committee, that the delivery plan has yet to be produced.”

Mr Rennick told committee MSPs the aim is for the plan to be published according to the timescale set in the Audit Scotland report, which was three to six months from its publication in May 2023.

Speaking at that time, the Auditor General said the delivery plan was “vital” to “address the backlog”.