Thousands of criminal cases have been dropped by one of Britain's busiest courts because of a strike by council staff.
Hundreds of defendants at Glasgow district court, which deals with cases such as breach of the peace, shoplifting, minor assault and drugs offences, are being dismissed each week because of disruption caused by court staff taking part in a dispute over pay.
The court deals with around 2,000 cases a week and more than half of them have been dropped since the strike involving court clerks began at the start of the month.
The crown office, which handles criminal prosecutions in Scotland, has said efforts were being made to delay or reschedule as many cases as possible but admitted that more than half of all cases were being abandoned because of the action.
"It is an area of concern and we are in close liaison with the police to try to resolve this issue," a spokeswoman said. "Matters which are already progressing through the court are not too much of a problem in that we can keep pushing them back. But it is becoming a matter of discretion with new cases what we can do with them. We have to confirm the fact that we are having to drop cases."
The spokeswoman said some of the more serious cases were being redirected to stipendiary magistrates where possible, and there was an option to re-raise cases at a later date. However, she admitted that it was unlikely that all dropped cases would be resurrected because of the courts' general workload. "The district courts work to their capacity. Any disruption over a period of time does cause problems," she said.
The situation has been condemned by opposition politicians. Phil Gallie, the Scottish Conservatives' justice spokesman, said underfunding of the criminal justice system was to blame. "For us to abandon serious charges seems to me to be total failure by the Scottish executive."
A spokeswoman for the executive said prosecutors at the court were trying to make the best of a difficult situation. She added that it was possible that some of the court cases would be resurrected.
Around 40 court staff, mostly clerks, have been on an indefinite strike since the beginning of November. Their action is part of a series of measures by the local government union Unison, aimed at securing a higher pay award. Council services across Scotland have also been disrupted by one-day stoppages.
Unison's Glasgow branch secretary, Angela Lynes, said yesterday: "We did notify Glasgow city council two and-a-half months in advance that these staff would be brought out, and they chose to ignore that fact."
Council workers had been offered a 6.1% pay increase over two years, but Unison has called for a higher offer over one year. The GMB and TGWU unions originally sided with Unison in the dispute, but voted to accept the latest deal after the convention of Scottish local authorities upped its original offer.
Scotland's councils are now planning to impose a pay offer on workers.
