The Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 (asp 12) is an act of the Scottish Parliament. It was introduced in the Scottish Parliament on 25 April 2023, and received royal assent on 30 October 2025.
The legislation includes provisions to abolish the Scots law trial verdict of not proven. It also changed the jury majority required for a conviction from the previous simple majority to at least two-thirds of the 15 jurors.
When the bill for the act was introduced, it provided for a pilot scheme whereby some rape trials would be held without a jury, and to reduce the size of the jury for Scottish criminal trials from 15 to 12. Several Scottish National Party (SNP) MSPs were uncomfortable with these proposals, with six of them abstaining on the vote at stage one. These were: Kate Forbes, Annabelle Ewing, Fergus Ewing, Christine Grahame, Ivan McKee and Michelle Thomson. This meant that at stage one more MSPs abstained on the bill, 62, than voted in favour, 60. These plans were eventually scrapped in October 2024.