The country’s two most senior judges, who are both retiring next week, have raised fears over a lack of criminal defence solicitors.

Lawyers have warned “time is rapidly running out” to halt a dwindling number of solicitors amid a “crisis in criminal defence” across Scotland.

The warning comes after Scotland’s two most senior judges raised fears that a lack of defence layers will exacerbate the delays in the courts system.

The professional body for Scottish solicitors has told The Scotsman the issue has “been getting steadily worse for years” and is creeping towards a situation that would be “beyond repair”.

The head of Scotland’s judiciary, the Lord President Lord Carloway, has also opened up about controversial plans during the early days of the pandemic to hold juryless trials. He warned he felt like he had been left “high and dry” by SNP ministers after they dropped the contentious plans he had publicly backed.

Speaking to the BBC alongside Lord Justice Clerk Lady Dorrian, who is also stepping down on February 3, Lord Carloway has also reflected on the pressures put on the courts system in 2020 when Scotland was put into lockdown in an attempt to halt the spread of Covid-19.

The Scottish Government introduced emergency legislation that controversially proposed that court cases usually determined by a jury could be decided by a judge instead, but was not brought forward following a backlash from politicians and the legal field.

When the row erupted, Lord Carloway argued the move would avoid a “monumental backlog”, which has come to pass.

Asked by the BBC about the Scottish Government’s decision not to proceed with juryless trials, he said: “I would hesitate to call it a mistake.

"I had meetings with the Cabinet secretary for justice and the Lord Advocate and I thought we had all agreed that we would move on to this model and that we were all going to make a statement about that, which I then did, perhaps rather foolishly, because they then didn't. So I was left high and dry on that one.

A courts backlog is still being dealt with after the hold-ups during the pandemic | Jane Barlow/PA Wire

"If we had used that model, there's no doubt that we would not have had the backlog that built up at that time. But I fully understand why the Government decided not to go with it."

Lord Carloway said although the volume of cases “has essentially doubled” since the pandemic, he believed the system was “coping pretty well with the cases that are coming in".

Pressed over growing concerns that a shortage of criminal defence solicitors will cause further delays, Lady Dorrian said it was “a very big challenge”.

Ian Moir, a criminal defence solicitor and the co-convener of the Law Society of Scotland's legal aid committee, told The Scotsman the comments from the outgoing top judges “show that everyone in Scotland's justice system from the top down can see there's a crisis in criminal defence and the entire legal aid system”.

He said: “Time is rapidly running out to implement a solution before the system is beyond repair.

"Criminal justice has a number of moving parts and issues with any part of the system will cause disruption and delays across the board. This is a problem that's been getting steadily worse for years, with a shortage of defence solicitors delaying court matters on a daily basis.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We continue to prioritise supporting justice partners to address the backlog, with £36.3m provided for justice recovery this year.

"This builds on funding of over £145m since 2021 for recovery, renewal and transformation activity, including remote juries."

Scotland's most senior judges reveal concerns over dwindling number of lawyers