Scottish government to roll out digital evidence sharing

The Scottish government is planning a national deployment of digital evidence sharing technology, allowing for evidence to be accessed on a unified system.

The Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC) system consists of a secure platform, which will be accessible to police officers, prosecutors, court staff and judges. Evidence can be collated, uploaded, managed and shared through the system, which everyone involved will have access to.

The system was piloted in Dundee from January 2023 to April 2024, and was then expanded to Tayside and Forth Valley. During the Dundee pilot, around 19,500 pieces of evidence went through the system, and saved 550 hours of police officers’ time.

However, the programme has not been without problems. At the start of April 2023, Computer Weekly revealed the Scottish government’s DESC service – contracted to body-worn video provider Axon for delivery and hosted on Microsoft Azure – was being piloted by Police Scotland despite a police watchdog raising concerns about how the use of Azure “would not be legal”. However, the roll-out has continued to go ahead.

Commenting on the national roll-put plans, Scottish justice secretary Angela Constance said: “[This is] a world first for Scotland – a truly transformational programme where digital evidence is managed securely from crime scene to court room, benefitting victims, police officers, prosecutors, defence lawyers, court staff and judges.

“During the successful pilot in Dundee, DESC allowed justice system partners to collect, manage and share digital evidence in a streamlined and efficient way, helping to get cases resolved more quickly. It has also freed up a significant amount of time for police officers, creating additional capacity for frontline policing,” she said.

The system handles a range of different types of evidence, including CCTV footage, photographs, data and other materials from computers and phones. The government aims to expand this to include recordings of police interviews and documents.

DESC also allow the public and businesses to submit digital evidence through a link sent by a police officer. It reduces the need for victims and witnesses to attend court, and speeds up the judicial process, according to the Scottish government.

Assistant chief constable Tim Mairs said this is a “significant step forward in modernising the collection, management and secure storage of digital evidence”.

“Until now, police officers have relied on transferring digital evidence such as mobile phone images or CCTV onto USB sticks or discs, before delivering them to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service,” he said.

“Through DESC, officers can obtain and share digital evidence securely and efficiently, saving them time and reducing delays. This supports victims and witnesses to achieve faster justice outcomes. The national roll-out will also provide the groundwork for further modernisation of the criminal justice process including supporting the introduction of body-worn video for frontline police officers.”

The government is investing £33m in the project and hopes to complete the national roll-out by autumn 2025. The DESC will initially only include summary cases, such as motoring offences and minor assaults. However, the plan is to add solemn cases, which cover serious criminal offences, at a later date.

In England, the government is in the midst of a huge justice system transformation programme which covers introducing online services, digital case files and using video technology in court hearings through a common platform, allowing the sharing of information between HMCTS, the Crown Prosecution Service and the police. 

Originally, the programme, which started in 2016, was due to be delivered by 2020. While some of the services has been delivered, the programme is still not complete, and as of July 2023, there was only £120m left to spend of its £1.3bn budget.