The ideal is that every diocese will have its own tribunal so that the tribunal is a living part of the local Christian community and not a distant bureaucracy, however the numbers of qualified and available personnel have made this difficult in non-Catholic countries like Scotland, and as far back as 1970 the Scottish bishops decided to create a single ecclesiastical Tribunal for all eight archdioceses and dioceses of the Catholic Church in Scotland, something which was approved by Saint Paul VI on 3 July 1970. Father Thomas Winning – later Cardinal Archbishop of Glasgow – was appointed as the first head of the new tribunal.

The original name of the Tribunal was the "Regional Tribunal of First Instance of Scotland" but, over the years it came to be called by various other unofficial names such as "The Marriage Tribunal" or "The National Tribunal." At the request of the Bishops of Scotland, the Apostolic Signatura, on 7 May 2012, decreed an official change in the Tribunal's name to the "Scottish Catholic Interdiocesan Tribunal" [with the acronym "SCI Tribunal"]. This title, although a little cumbersome, is more accurate from a canonical point of view.

In 2015 Pope Francis asked the world’s bishops to consider creating diocesan tribunals and to take a more active part in marriage tribunals. Our Scottish bishops decided that the national tribunal was still the best way to serve the needs of the Scottish dioceses, but they do now take a more active part by way of hearing certain cases that are judged by the bishops personally, although the majority of cases are still dealt with by our Judges due to their expertise, qualifications, and greater availability.