What the reasons are for the increase in the number of appeals sent to the High Court Judiciary, as highlighted in the Criminal Appeal Stat…

The most recent issue of Criminal Appeal Statistics, Scotland was published on 22 August 2001. The statistics relate to appeals against conviction, sentence or acquittal concluded in the High Court of Justiciary sitting in its appellate capacity during the year 2000.The statistics indicate that the overall total of such cases concluded during 2000 was in fact 2% lower than the total for 1999.It is open to any person convicted of a criminal offence in the district, sheriff or High Court to appeal to the High Court sitting in its appellate capacity against conviction alone, sentence alone or against both conviction and sentence. It is also open to the Crown to appeal against acquittal or against sentence in very limited circumstances. Crown appeals are comparatively rare. Defence appeals are far more common and are initiated on the basis of advice tendered to convicted persons by their legal representatives as to the prospects of a successful appeal. Such advice in any given case will take into account the whole circumstances of the case so far as relevant and the applicable law.One area in which there was an increase in appeal business between 1999 and 2000 concerned persons previously convicted of murder in the High Court and sentenced to life imprisonment who, following a decision of the High Court issued on 29 November 1996 in the case of Elliott v HM Advocate, appealed with a view to having the effective commencement date of such sentences "backdated" to the date on which they were first remanded in custody to await trial. The number of such appeals dealt with during 2000 was over 90, as compared with 21 during the previous year.