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

80 Transfer of cases to the Sexual Offences Court

(1) The 1995 Act is amended as follows.

(2) After section 288BZA, insert—

“Transfer of cases to the Sexual Offences Court

288BZB Transfer of cases to the Sexual Offences Court

(1) This section applies when an accused person has been cited to attend a diet of—

(a) the sheriff court on indictment, or

(b) the High Court of Justiciary.

(2) In this section, the “relevant court” means the High Court of Justiciary or the sheriff court which the accused person has been cited to attend.

(3) On an application under subsection (4), the relevant court may, on cause shown, make an order for the transfer of the proceedings to the Sexual Offences Court and for adjournment to a diet of that Court (“a transfer order”).

(4) An application may be made to the relevant court for a transfer order—

(a) by the prosecutor,

(b) jointly by the prosecutor and the accused.

(5) Where an application is made—

(a) by the prosecutor under subsection (4)(a),

(b) jointly by the prosecutor and the accused under subsection (4)(b), and there is another accused in the case who is not party to the application,

the relevant 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.

(6) An application under subsection (4) 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.

(7) The relevant court may consider an application under subsection (4) at a first diet (in the case of proceedings in the sheriff court) or the preliminary hearing (in the case of proceedings in the High Court).

(8) At a first diet or preliminary hearing, as the case may be, the relevant court may ask the prosecutor and the accused any question in connection with any matter which is relevant to an application under subsection (4).

(9) Section 74 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 first diet (in the case of proceedings in the sheriff court) or a preliminary hearing (in the case of proceedings in the High Court).

(10) Where a transfer order is made under this section, the first diet (in the case of proceedings in the sheriff court) or preliminary hearing (in the case of proceedings in the High Court) is to be treated as the preliminary hearing of the Sexual Offences Court for the purpose of section 65.”.