Vulnerable Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2004

An Act of the Scottish Parliament to make provision for the use of special measures for the purpose of taking the evidence of children and other vulnerable witnesses in criminal or civil proceedings; to provide for evidential presumptions in criminal proceedings where certain reports of identification procedures are lodged as productions; to make provision about the admissibility of expert psychological or psychiatric evidence as to subsequent behaviour of the complainer in criminal proceedings in respect of certain offences; to prohibit persons charged with certain offences from conducting their own defence at the trial and any victim statement proof where a child witness under the age of 12 is to give evidence at the trial; to enable the court to prohibit persons from conducting their own defence at the trial and any victim statement proof in other criminal proceedings in which a vulnerable witness is to give evidence; to prohibit persons charged with certain offences from seeking to precognosce personally a child under the age of 12; to make provision about the admissibility of certain evidence bearing on the character, conduct or condition of witnesses in proceedings before a sheriff relating to the establishment of grounds of referral to children’s hearings; to abolish the competence test for witnesses in criminal and civil proceedings; and for connected purposes.