Scottish Government

Chapter 7: Recommendations to Extend the VNS

Introduction

7.1 In this chapter we outline the key implications of the analysis for an extended VNS. We draw on material in preceding chapters.

Recommendations

7.2 The key points to consider for an extended scheme are as follows:

• Throughout our contact with victims it was clear that some degree of confusion existed about how the scheme operates. Consequently, consideration should be given to how victims interpret the material relating to joining the scheme and their comprehension about how it works, particularly in the context of the offender's eligibility for release and parole.
• On the basis of estimates of the predicted opt-in rates, current costs and the numbers of offences in the prescribed categories in 2005/6, an extended VNS is not likely to be unduly expensive, though monitoring (jointly by COPFS and SPS) of the future opt-in rate would be required to assess these over time. Monitoring would involve the design of a framework that allows as accurate an assessment as possible of the opt-in rate by determining the number of individual victims invited to join the scheme (and not the numbers of letters that are issued) against the numbers of those who subsequently do so.
• The overall costs of the current scheme are relatively low and amount to less than £20,000 per annum. In terms of an extended scheme the predicted operating costs to cover sentences of 2 years and above are around £32,000 per annum, and £40,000 per annum for sentences of 1 year and above. It is likely that an extended VNS scheme would not be too resource-intensive so changing the existing management model seems unnecessary at the present stage. Although it is difficult to predict the future opt-in rate with certainty, it is unlikely that the extension will involve more than two or three the present number of cases. Although we cannot account for changes in future sentencing policy, or from access to the VNS arsing from the Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill, we doubt if these would place a strain on the current system. However, monitoring numbers in the early stages of the policy is strongly recommended.
• A relatively low numbers of cases exist that require speed of response in terms of informing victims about offenders who abscond. One potential route to increasing the ability of SPS to respond more quickly and directly to victims, in whatever model of the scheme is adopted, is to improve the range of information collected by SPS about victim contact details at the point of registration (especially on telephone and e-mail addresses), although there is no guarantee that all victims will provide this information.
• Speed of response issues in relation to appeals by offenders and recalls could be dealt with through communications between COPFS and SPS (i.e. on appeals) and internally within SPS where electronic notification could be provided by prisons on offenders who have been recalled and this information cross-checked against victims in the VNS database.
• Victims would potentially gain from an extended scheme that was managed by prison establishments in terms of a quicker response to absconds. This management system would also have benefits for the timely recording of information on appeals and recalls to custody. However, these benefits for victims in speed of notification would have to be balanced against concerns about confidentiality. Confidentiality was an issue raised in discussions with prison representatives and given the importance of the issue for victims any revised model would have to fully address these concerns.
• We believe that breaches of confidentiality could potentially arise if the management of the scheme was based in prisons. It also seems likely that the volume of work implied by extending the scheme would be insufficient to warrant its dispersal, especially with the likely increase in management time (and variations in efficiencies) that would be involved. Greater resources may accrue in terms of the management of the scheme and the risks to confidentiality are potentially greater. Consequently, our recommendation at this stage would be to resource an extended VNS through central SPS.