Lawyer warning after Hamilton Sheriff Court sits for 10 hours

GEOAmey is responsible for transferring suspects from police custody to court

A lawyer has described delays in Scotland's criminal justice system, which saw one court sit for more than 10 hours, as a "national crisis."

Matthew McGovern shared his experiences at Hamilton Sheriff Court on social media.

He told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland that custody arrangements were causing problems across the country.

Prisoner services provider GEOAmey said it faced an increase in demand for its services.

On Monday, Mr McGovern posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the court finished at 22:20.

He told the programme the last suspect was transferred by GEOAmey from a local police station to the court at 20:30.

Mr McGovern, of Lanarkshire firm McGovern Reid, said: "To put that in context, custody court starts at 12 o'clock.

"That is the extent of the delays we are dealing with just now."

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GEOAmey said more than 40 people were scheduled to be transported to the court, which has a capacity of only nine cells.

Before Covid up to up to six people could be held in a single cell.

But any suspect with "a marker" for violence or mental health could require a cell of their own.

And since the pandemic, suspects have also been able to request a single cell as part of a risk assessment before appearing at court.

Mr McGovern said: "This is a relatively new policy. Before the pandemic you could have 40 people down the stairs.

"It has been implemented without any proper thought to any other justice partner and it goes beyond Hamilton Sheriff Court. It is a national problem."

He added Forfar sat until 21:00 on Monday, which is traditionally the busiest day of the week as the court has to process people arrested over the weekend.

Mr McGovern said: "This is a national problem and it is a national crisis."

Lawyer Matthew McGovern highlighted his concerns over court delays in Hamilton on social media

Last month, Sheriff Principal Pyle announced that pending jury trials would not be able to go ahead at Stornoway, Lerwick, Kirkwall, Portree and Lochmaddy Sheriff Courts as a result of staffing challenges faced by GEOAmey.

New jury trials will instead call at Inverness, Aberdeen or Peterhead Sheriff Courts.

Meanwhile, the Law Society of Scotland said it had been receiving "disturbing and unacceptable" reports of delays and disruption in courts across the country for quite some time.

Mr McGovern said solicitors, prosecutors, sheriffs, police and court staff kept the justice system functioning during the Covid pandemic.

But the Wishaw-based lawyer added: "If you don't have a functioning justice system then you don't have a functioning democracy and the thanks we are getting, those of us on the front line two years on, is an absolute disgrace."

Mr McGovern said one solution would be to re-introduce video link hearings from the police station.

But he dismissed the idea of extending the traditional court day - which runs from 10:00 to 16:00 - and argued it would put lawyers under more pressure as they had duties to take care of before and after each daily sitting.

The lawyer added: "If you can't start your work until after 10 o'clock at night that has a real impact on your work-life balance and on your mental health."

He also fears the current pressures will put young lawyers off a career in criminal defence.

Mr McGovern said the ripple effects of the current delays affected everyone, from the cleaners to "under paid and under appreciated" court staff.

A GEOAmey spokesperson said: "GEOAmey are fully committed to helping clear the backlog of criminal cases in Scotland, and we understand that this has led to an increase in demand for our services.

On the issues at Hamilton on Monday, it highlighted the limited cell capacity at the court.

The spokesperson added: "This inevitably resulted in delays being experienced by court users.

"GEOAmey continually works with its partners to identify areas where we can improve the services we provide."

A Scottish Prison Service (SPS) spokesperson said: "We are working with our contractor, GEOAmey, to ensure we meet the transport needs of those in our care and the wider justice sector.

"Due to the levels of concern around this contract, and the priority SPS places on securing an improvement in performance, senior leaders are actively engaging with justice partners to identify solutions to the challenges we have seen."

The Scottish government said the SPS was responsible for the management of the contract and was "closely monitoring performance".

A spokesperson added the service was also supporting GEOAmey to improve staff recruitment and retention to meet the demand for service,