Services
- Criminal Justice Social Work
- Bail Services
- Children and young people who offend
- Community Payback Order
- Court Orders involving Unpaid Work in the community
- Court Services
- Court reports
- Diversion from Prosecution Scheme
- Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTO)
- Fines and Compensation Orders
- Prison Social Work at Addiewell Prison
- Prison Through-care and Aftercare
- Probation Orders
- Restriction of Liberty Orders
- Risk Assessment and Management
- West Lothian's Criminal Justice Teams and their services
- Working with people - confidentiality, communication, consultation and comments
Court Services
Where are the courts in West Lothian?
West Lothian now has all its courts located in one site - the West Lothian Civic Centre. With six courtrooms to use for the work of the Sheriff Court, Justice of the Peace Court and the High Court, Livingston Court is one of the bigger courts in Scotland. These courts and their business are managed by the Scottish Courts Service (new window).
What is the role of Social Workers in court?
A lot of court work now involves the Criminal Justice Social Work Service, and we have a team of Social Workers and a Criminal Justice Assistant who work on a rota basis in the courts - primarily within the Sheriff Courts which deal with most of the cases that we are involved in.
The Court Social Worker is responsible for making sure that the courts have all necessary information to assist in dealing with cases, by:
- ensuring that court reports are available in court
- helping the people on whom reports have been written with any questions or concerns they may have
- dealing with enquiries from the Sheriffs or solicitors about the availablilty of services in the community
- interviewing offenders on whom court reports have been requested, or who have been sentenced to any of the sentences that the CJ Social Work Service manages.
Who else helps deal with problems in court?
Visitors to the court may see other people, including staff of the Witness Support Service (new window) and occasionally staff from Victim Support West Lothian (new window) .
Court Custody service
If a person is arrested and brought to court from police custody, or if someone appears in court from prison, they will be transported to court and looked after in the custody suite by staff of Reliance Custodial Services (new window) .
Updated: 07/09/11
