Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Act 2025

Functions and powers

2 Functions

(1) The Commissioner’s general function is to promote and support the rights and interests of victims and witnesses.

(2) In exercising the general function, the Commissioner is to—

(a) engage, in such manner as the Commissioner considers appropriate, with—

(i) victims and witnesses,

(ii) persons providing victim support services,

(b) take such steps as the Commissioner considers appropriate to raise awareness of and promote—

(i) the interests of victims and witnesses,

(ii) the Victims’ Charter (see section 9),

(c) monitor compliance with—

(i) standards of service set and published under section 2 of the Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2014 (“the 2014 Act”),

(ii) the Victims’ Code for Scotland prepared and published under section 3B of that Act,

(d) consider the provision of information to victims and other persons and the making of representations under Part 2 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003,

(e) promote best practice, in particular trauma-informed practice, by—

(i) criminal justice bodies,

(ii) persons providing victim support services,

(f) undertake and commission research in order to—

(i) produce the Commissioner’s annual report under section 18,

(ii) make recommendations, in relation to any matter relevant to the Commissioner’s general function, to criminal justice bodies and to persons providing victim support services.

3 Civil function

(1) The Scottish Ministers may, by regulations, amend the Commissioner’s general function to include the civil function.

(2) The civil function is to promote and support the rights and interests of persons involved in proceedings other than criminal proceedings.

(3) Regulations under subsection (1) may, in particular—

(a) contain a definition, for the purposes of the civil function, of—

(i) proceedings other than criminal proceedings,

(ii) persons involved in proceedings other than criminal proceedings,

(b) provide for the exercise of the civil function to include—

(i) engagement, in such manner as the Commissioner considers appropriate, with persons involved in proceedings other than criminal proceedings or providing support to persons involved in such proceedings,

(ii) taking such steps as the Commissioner considers appropriate to raise awareness of and promote the interests of persons involved in proceedings other than criminal proceedings,

(iii) promoting best practice, in particular trauma-informed practice, by persons involved in the administration and management of proceedings other than criminal proceedings and by persons providing support to persons involved in such proceedings,

(iv) undertaking and commissioning research in order to include information relating to the exercise of the civil function within the annual report under section 18,

(v) undertaking and commissioning research in order to make recommendations, in relation to any matter relevant to the civil function, to persons involved in the administration and management of proceedings other than criminal proceedings and persons that provide support to persons involved in such proceedings,

(c) modify this Part to include within the Commissioner’s functions and powers—

(i) persons involved in proceedings other than criminal proceedings,

(ii) the administration and management of proceedings other than criminal proceedings and persons involved in such administration and management,

(iii) persons providing support to persons involved in proceedings other than criminal proceedings.

(4) Regulations under subsection (1) may—

(a) make any incidental, supplementary, consequential, transitional, transitory or saving provision the Scottish Ministers consider appropriate for the purposes of, in connection with or for giving full effect to this section,

(b) modify this Part (including schedules 1 and 2).

4 Engagement

(1) In exercising the Commissioner’s function under section 2(2)(a), the Commissioner—

(a) may establish such groups as the Commissioner considers appropriate,

(b) must pay particular attention to groups of victims and witnesses who do not have other adequate means by which they can make their views known.

(2) The Commissioner must prepare and keep under review a strategy for engaging with victims, witnesses and persons providing victim support services in accordance with section 2(2)(a) and this section.

5 Advisory group

(1) The Commissioner may establish and maintain an advisory group to give advice and information to the Commissioner about matters relating to the Commissioner’s functions.

(2) The members of any such advisory group are to be such persons as the Commissioner may determine, subject to the approval of the Parliamentary corporation as to—

(a) the number of members,

(b) the persons to be appointed.

(3) The Commissioner may pay to the members of any such advisory group such remuneration and allowances (including expenses) as the Commissioner, with the approval of the Parliamentary corporation, may determine.

(4) The procedure of any such advisory group is to be such as the Commissioner may determine.

6 Power to work with others

(1) The Commissioner may, in the exercise of the Commissioner’s functions—

(a) work with a person mentioned in subsection (2), on such terms as may be agreed with the person,

(b) when requested by such a person, provide assistance to the person,

(c) consult such a person.

(2) The persons are—

(a) the Scottish Parliament,

(b) the Scottish Ministers,

(c) the Lord Advocate,

(d) the chief constable of the Police Service of Scotland,

(e) His Majesty’s Inspectors of Constabulary in Scotland,

(f) the Scottish Police Authority,

(g) the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner,

(h) the Information Commissioner,

(i) the Scottish Human Rights Commission,

(j) the Commissioner for Children and Young People in Scotland,

(k) such other persons as the Commissioner considers appropriate.

7 General powers

(1) The Commissioner may do anything which appears to the Commissioner—

(a) to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of, or in connection with, the performance of the Commissioner’s functions, or

(b) to be otherwise conducive to the performance of those functions.

(2) Despite the generality of subsection (1), the Commissioner may pay fees and allowances to a person for advice, assistance or any other service only with the approval of the Parliamentary corporation.

8 Restriction on exercise of functions

(1) The Commissioner may not exercise any function in relation to an individual case.

(2) But subsection (1) does not prevent the Commissioner considering individual cases and drawing conclusions about them for the purpose of, or in the context of, exercising a function.

(3) The Commissioner may not exercise any function in such a way as to adversely affect any protection relating to the independence of decision-making by a criminal justice body.

(4) The Commissioner may exercise the Commissioner’s functions in relation to victims’ and witnesses’ experiences that occurred prior to the coming into force of this section, but only if and to the extent that the experiences are relevant to the exercise of the Commissioner’s general function.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (1), “individual case” includes—

(a) a particular victim or witness,

(b) the bringing or conduct of particular proceedings,

(c) anything done or omitted to be done by a person acting in a judicial capacity or on the instructions of or on behalf of such a person.