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The Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Act 2025 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2026

S.S.I. 2026/294 · Made 27 October 2026

Original text. legislation.gov.uk does not revise statutory instruments, so later amendments are not shown here. Changes made to it are listed under each provision when known.

CRIMINAL LAW

CRIMINAL PROCEDURE

EVIDENCE

Made 27th October 2026

Laid before the Scottish Parliament 29th October 2026

Coming into force 30th December 2026

The Scottish Ministers make the following Regulations in exercise of the power conferred by section 34(4) of the Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Act 2025f1.

Annotations to the whole text

Footnotes

f1

2025 asp 14.

Contents

  1. 1Citation, commencement and interpretation
  2. 2Appointed day
  3. Signature
  4. Explanatory note

1Citation, commencement and interpretation

(1)

These Regulations may be cited as the Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Act 2025 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2026 and come into force on 30 December 2026.

(2)

In these Regulations, “the Act” means the Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Act 2025.

2Appointed day

(1)

30 December 2026 is the day appointed for the coming into force of those provisions of the Act which are specified in paragraph (2).

(2)

The specified provisions are—

(a)

section 6 (authentication of electronic copy documents),

(b)

section 7 (body-worn video evidence),

(c)

section 11 (addition of charge to indictment).

Signature

NEIL GRAY

A member of the Scottish Government

St Andrew’s House,

Edinburgh

27th October 2026

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations bring into force on 30 December 2026 sections 6, 7 and 11 of the Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Act 2025 (“the Act”).

Section 6 concerns authentication of electronic copy documents and enables documents which have been uploaded to the Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC) (see section 6(6)) or a successor system to be treated as true copies without the need for a certificate issued under schedule 8 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (c. 46).

Section 7 deals with evidence from police body-worn video recordings and provides for details of date, time and/or place of recorded events where these are displayed on the footage to be treated as sufficient evidence of those matters unless challenged by the accused within a specified period.

Section 11 enables an indictment to be amended to add an additional charge or charges after service on the accused in the circumstances specified in that section.

The Bill for the Act received Royal Assent on 19 November 2025. Part 3 (sections 32 to 35) came into force the following day. In accordance with section 34(2) and (3), sections 1, 2, 4, 8, 9(1) insofar as relating to section 9(2), 9(2) and 10 came into force on 1 December 2025.