Prosecutors have set up the first dedicated team to handle victims and evidence in an effort to tackle Scotland's rape conviction shame.

Elish Angiolini, the Lord Advocate, announced yesterday changes in the way information is gathered and presented following a review of the Crown Prosecution service.

The announcement came weeks after shocking statistics showed that only 3.9% of rape cases in Scotland end with a conviction. The Lord Advocate said the creation of the five-strong sexual offences team in the Lothian and Borders Procurator Fiscal area could provide a template for similar groups to be set up around the country.

One prosecutor will be based at a groundbreaking protection unit, which opened last year, meaning victims will be dealt with by a dedicated Crown representative officer, and not on the previous ad-hoc system of using whoever was available at a particular time. It will mean a prosecutor will directly oversee the evidence-gathering process in its early stages, ensuring investigators record and detail all necessary material when it is needed.

Ms Angiolini was speaking yesterday during a visit to Amethyst, the multi-agency public protection unit in Edinburgh.

Since the protection unit opened last September, 200 potential victims have been processed by its trained health staff who work alongside police and counselling personnel. A feature of the unit is a forensic medical examination room which has been used by 120 people.

Ms Angiolini said the new prosecution team will improve the training provided to depute fiscals working in the sensitive area of sexual crime.

"We have co-located within the unit to provide advice in the earliest stages of these cases and to look at evidential problems that may be emerging and to tackle these at that stage.

"Likewise we have a team that is dedicated in these areas to have early involvement of Crown counsel so that those who will be prosecuting with difficult and complex cases will be in at the early stages to improve everything we can to make sure these cases are as well prepared as they may be."

She said the new team would improve the training provided to deputes fiscal and help implement some of the recommendations of a Crown Office review of rape and sexual offences.

Tom Halpin, Deputy Chief Constable of Lothian and Border Police and lead officer for family protection at Acpos, the Association of Chief Police Officers of Scotland, said the move was of national importance.

He said: "The lessons here are learned not just in Lothian and Borders but through the work of Acpos across Scotland."

Detective Chief Inspector Adrian Lawrie of Lothian and Borders Police, who runs the Amethyst centre, said: "The presence of a Procurator Fiscal at Amethyst demonstrates the worth of police officers and prosecutors working more closely, in the same office, discussing cases and learning from each other."

The Lord Advocate also welcomed yesterday First Minister Alex Salmond's announcement last month that a new sexual offences bill is to be drafted, and it hoped this will also help increase convictions.

That will include a definition of consent for the first time to prevent alleged rapists being freed because their accusers had been drinking or had taken drugs.

The proposed bill is expected to state that a victim cannot have consented to sex if he or she was unconscious, asleep, had been threatened with violence or was incapable because of drink or drugs.