The Scottish Government, in close collaboration with Scottish criminal justice organisations, devised and has implemented a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation framework to ensure that the impact of the reforms to summary justice can be measured.
Monitoring and Evaluation Framework
The Framework comprises three closely related strands of work:
- The commissioning of a suite of six evaluations of specific aspects of the reforms;
- The collection and publication of high level key performance information;
- The collection of lower level, more detailed contextual monitoring data.
A comprehensive four-year programme of work has been put in place to evaluate each of the key aspects of the reforms to summary justice. Each of these aspects of the reforms will be evaluated at multiple levels of:
- Their own specific policy objectives;
- The contribution they make to the realisation of the intended outcomes of Summary Justice Reform;
- The contribution they make to the overarching objectives of Summary Justice Reform.
Evaluations
Those aspects of the reforms that are subject to detailed evaluation are:
- Direct Measures and the Fiscal Work Order Pilot
- Summary Criminal Legal Assistance and Disclosure
- Fines Enforcement
- Bail and Undertakings
- Lay Justice; and
- Victims, Witnesses and Public Perceptions