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

81 Transfer of cases from the Sexual Offences Court

(1) This section applies when an accused person has been cited to attend a diet of the Sexual Offences Court.

(2) On an application under subsection (3), the Sexual Offences Court may, on cause shown, make an order for the transfer of the proceedings to the High Court of Justiciary or a sheriff court with jurisdiction to hear the case, as specified in the application, and for an adjournment to a diet of that court (“a transfer order”).

(3) An application may be made to the Sexual Offences Court for a transfer order—

(a) by the prosecutor,

(b) jointly by the prosecutor and the accused.

(4) Where an application is made—

(a) by the prosecutor under subsection (3)(a),

(b) jointly by the prosecutor and the accused under subsection (3)(b), and there is another accused in the case who is not party to the application,

the Sexual Offences Court must, before making a transfer order, give the accused, or the accused who is not party to the application, as the case may be, an opportunity to make representations about the application, whether orally or in writing.

(5) An application under subsection (3) may be made—

(a) at any time in the period beginning with the day on which the accused is served with an indictment and ending on the day on which the trial diet is first appointed,

(b) on cause shown, at any time in the period beginning with the day after the period mentioned in paragraph (a) expires and ending on the day before the trial diet commences.

(6) The Sexual Offences Court may consider an application under subsection (3) at a preliminary hearing.

(7) At a preliminary hearing the Sexual Offences Court may ask the prosecutor and the accused any question in connection with any matter which is relevant to an application under subsection (3).

(8) Section 74 of the 1995 Act applies to a decision—

(a) to make a transfer order under this section,

(b) not to make such an order,

whether or not such decision was made at a preliminary hearing.

(9) Where a transfer order is made under this section, the preliminary hearing of the Sexual Offences Court is to be treated, for the purposes of section 65 of the 1995 Act, as—

(a) the first diet of the sheriff court (in the case of transfer to the sheriff court), or

(b) the preliminary hearing of the High Court (in the case of transfer to the High Court).

(10) In this section—

• “first diet” is to be construed in accordance with section 66(6)(a) of the 1995 Act,

• “preliminary hearing” is to be construed in accordance with section 66(6)(b) of that Act.