Accessible information policy

The aims of this policy are to ensure that COPFS information, documents and publications are accessible to all people in Scotland and to set out transparent and consistent criteria for making decisions on the languages and other formats to be made available.

The policy intends to benefit people who:

• don’t speak English as their first language
• are Deaf, DeafBlind or use British Sign Language as their first language
• have a hearing impairment
• have a speech impairment
• have difficulties reading text.

COPFS seeks to remove barriers to information by adopting nationally approved accessible standards and to provide access to high quality translation, interpretation and communication support services in order to ensure fair and accessible services for everyone. The strategy covers accessible written and other formats, and the use of spoken languages other than English, including British Sign Language.

The standards will be applied to all COPFS templates, IT systems; documents; training material and publications. 

As a public body COPFS is subject to the legal requirements of the Equality Act 2010.  We have a duty to eliminate unlawful discrimination and promote equality. By identifying and removing communication barriers we are complying with an essential part of these duties. 

It is not acceptable to deny someone full access to justice either as a victim, witness, bereaved relative or an accused person. COPFS must ensure that everyone required to use our services is able to access information about us and case-related documents in their own language or preferred format where necessary. 

There are a variety of alternative formats and communication supports available and COPFS is responsible for arranging these to meet individual needs. COPFS must ensure a consistent and cost-effective response to the language and communication needs of all services users. 

We know that people may find written text inaccessible unless we follow some basic rules. 

For example:

• Someone with a sight impairment will find ‘fancy’ fonts, blocks of italics or text over graphics difficult to read
• A person who uses an electronic screen-reader will be unable to ‘read’ some page layouts
• Someone with dyslexia will have difficulty reading fully justified text (i.e. text that is aligned on both sides of the page)
• Most people find legal jargon difficult and off-putting

To help us provide an accessible service to the public, COPFS supports the Accessible Information Standards. These standards ensure that accessible text, font size and layout are used on all written correspondence, documents, and publications.

COPFS also supports the use of Plain English. In addition, COPFS provides accessible services and information by:

• having hearing induction systems in public areas and displaying their availability
• meeting WCAG 2.1 website access standards
• providing an accessible electronic customer feedback system and alternative means to submit comments or complaints as required

We recognise that there will always be individual variations to these general standards. If the information is being produced for someone with specific needs, staff should check with the individual whenever possible, to ensure that their needs will be met.

In many cases, communication needs are identified by the police and passed on to COPFS. However, we cannot assume that this alone will capture a person’s communication needs. We also use other measures to allow members of the public to notify us of their individual needs. 

When we issue letters and other documentation, our service users must be able to notify us of their preferred translation or need for alternative formats.

We enable this by:

• issuing a Translation Request Docquet with all first correspondence, which has the following line in nearly 20 languages: ‘Please contact the Procurator Fiscal's office if you would like a translation of this document
• including a standard line on all publications: ‘Please contact the Procurator Fiscal's office if you would like this document in another language or format, including Braille, audio, electronic or large print
• including a standard line in all meeting or interview requests: ‘Information about disabled access arrangements for this office is available on our website: www.copfs.gov.uk or by contacting this office directly’

When attending our offices, members of the public must be able to identify their preferred spoken language or communication support needs. We enable this by displaying Language Identification notices in public areas and providing access to telephone  or in-person interpreters when required.

The use of telephone interpreters through Language Line and Relay UK enables COPFS to meet immediate language needs.