The Scottish Government is responsible for publishing the annual Civil Judicial Statistics publication, which provides statistics on the civil law business of a variety of courts, including the sheriff courts and the Court of Session, and also contains information on diligence.
The statistics have been published in their current format for many years. However, it has been recognised within the Government that the way in which civil judicial statistics are currently made available is of limited use in allowing the Government, or anyone else with an interest, to effectively monitor and evaluate policies or procedures, inform future policy initiatives or assess the use and performance of the courts.
As a result, we are in the process of reviewing the scope, quality and presentation of statistics on the civil justice system. At the end of this review we will make and implement recommendations for change to ensure that accurate, relevant and timely statistics are collected in a consistent way across Scotland, are published in an appropriate format and are used with confidence.
As part of this review, research has recently been carried out with users, and potential users, of civil judicial statistics, to identify their data requirements and suggestions for a revised Civil Judicial Statistics publication. The research engaged with 71 organisations and individuals, and generated over 600 statistical requests. The findings from this research were published on 5 October 2007 and can be found in the report Research with Users of Civil Judicial Statistics.
In addition to these concerns surrounding the scope of the statistics currently collected, it is also believed that some of the data contained within the Civil Judicial Statistics publication contain significant inaccuracies, and as a result the publication has been suspended whilst these inaccuracies are investigated. The latest available publication is Civil Judicial Statistics 2002.
The Scottish Court Service, the main provider of the data concerned, is working with Justice Analytical Services to improve the accuracy and level of detail of the civil judicial statistics it collects. This work includes changes to the configuration and use of electronic systems for case management and data capture throughout the civil courts, which will be in place by April 2008.
The only means to recover accurate data from 2003 onwards is to examine the paper records held in each of the 49 sheriff courts. However, it would be prohibitively resource-intensive to carry out such an exercise and therefore accurate data will not be available until the new procedures are in place. As the quality of the data is currently not of an acceptable standard and cannot feasibly be improved then historical data will not be made publicly available within a statistical publication.
Data from 2003 onwards continue to be collected, however, and are available upon request, subject to the resources required to provide the requested information. If you would like to request unpublished data then please contact us.
The next step for the review is to consider each of the responses submitted as part of the research with users of the statistics, and develop a specification for the revised dataset and publication. The work being undertaken to improve the quality of the data will also be continued. Data providers, relevant Ministers and others will be consulted as appropriate.
Further information will be made available as this work progresses but if you have any questions about the review then please contact us.
24 October 2007