# Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Act 2025, Section 43: Co-operation with the Scottish Ministers for the purposes of sharing information with victims

Extent: S
Status: prospective

(1) The Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 is amended as follows.
(2) After section 17DA insert—
“Co-operation for the purposes of this Part
17DB (1) The Lord Advocate may co-operate with the Scottish Ministers in relation to the exercise of the Scottish Ministers’ functions under sections 16 to 17DA.
(2) The Scottish Ministers may by regulations impose on any person not mentioned in subsection (1), or any type of person, a duty to co-operate with the Scottish Ministers in relation to the exercise of the Scottish Ministers’ functions under sections 16 to 17DA.
(3) The Scottish Ministers may co-operate with a person to whom subsection (4) applies for the purpose of—
(a) the exercise of the Scottish Ministers’ functions under sections 16 to 17DA,
(b) the exercise by the person of equivalent functions in the place in which the person operates.
(4) This subsection applies to a person who, in a place other than Scotland—
(a) has functions equivalent to any of the Scottish Ministers’ functions under sections 16 to 17DA,
(b) has responsibility for information relevant to the Scottish Ministers’ functions under sections 16 to 17DA.
(5) For the purposes of this section, co-operation includes in particular the provision of such information as the Scottish Ministers reasonably require for the purpose of exercising those functions.
(6) In section 88(2)—
(a) in the opening words, after “order” insert “or regulations”,
(b) in paragraph (a), after “17B(7)” (as inserted by section 42(6)) insert “, 17DB(2)”.”.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2025/12/section/43 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/victims-witnesses-and-justice-reform-scotland-act-2025/section-43
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.