The 2007 Act made provision for the unification of Scotland's courts to allow for the more efficient, effective and consistent handling of criminal cases through the summary courts. Under the summary justice reform programme, district courts, which were at the time run by local authorities, became Justice of the Peace (JP) courts operated by the Scottish Court Service (SCS).
Unification timetable
Unification was rolled out over a period of two years as follows:
- Lothian and Borders - 10 March 2008
- Grampian, Highland and islands - 2 June 2008
- Glasgow and Strathkelvin - 8 December 2008
- Tayside, Central and Fife - 23 February 2009
- North Strathclyde - 14 December 2009
- South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway - 22 February 2010
Benefits of unification
The creation of a unified courts administration under the responsibility of SCS, provides:
- support to the judiciary in Sheriff and JP summary criminal courts;
- court services in all summary criminal courts, and management and provision of legal and administrative staff;
- one national IT system for all summary criminal cases; and
- improved collection and enforcement of all fines and financial penalties