Report and Recommendations - Scottish Government

Current LawDefinition6.4.3 There is no statutory definition of a vulnerable suspect. Section 271 of the1995 Act 2 does, however, make provision for vulnerable witnesses. Itidentifies vulnerability under reference to whether the quality of a person’sevidence would be diminished by reason of two matters. First, there is“mental disorder”, which is in turn defined in terms of the mental healthlegislation 3 as meaning: “(a) mental illness; (b) personality disorder; or (c)learning disability, however caused or manifested”. It is expressly providedthat a person is not “mentally disordered” by reason only of, amongst otherthings, sexual deviancy, dependence on alcohol or drugs or behaviour thatcauses, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to any other person.Secondly, and essentially entirely separately, there is vulnerability by reasonof “fear or distress in connection with giving evidence at the trial”. Thisprovision is primarily directed towards victims or intimidated witnesses. Suchpersons are not normally suspects, although they may be if, for example, theywere engaged in crime as a result of exploitation in the course of humantrafficking 4 or are both abuser and abused in the domestic setting.6.4.4 The vulnerable witness provisions are concerned with providing specialmeasures at the trial diet to protect vulnerable persons when giving evidence.These include giving evidence by live video link from a remote location or2 inserted by the Vulnerable Witnesses (Scotland) Act 20043 Mental Health (Care and Treatment)(Scotland) Act 2003 s 3284 see EU Directive 2011/36/EU where Article 2.2 defines a “ position of vulnerability” as a situation inwhich the person concerned has no real or acceptable alternative but to submit to the abuse involved226