A MAJOR review of how sexual offences are prosecuted in Scotland has made almost 200 recommendations for change.

With extensive experience in such cases, which make up 70 per cent of the business in Scottish high courts, Susanne Tanner KC was commissioned to carry out the review by the country’s most senior prosecutor, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC.

Listening to the experiences of 13 victims who had navigated the system, Ms Tanner called for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) to establish a lived experience board and for there to be a “single, focused sexual offences function” within the service to replace the National Sexual Crimes Unit and “limit siloed ways of working.”

Welcoming the review, Ms Bain said: “The recommendations of this review will not only assist COPFS in its ongoing process of change, they will also inform wider justice reform, building a system which recognises, respects and responds to the needs of victims.”

COPFS legal director Katrina Parkes added: “We are learning as society changes. 

“That means listening to the experiences of victims, third-sector organisations, criminal justice partners and colleagues.”