Criminal Proceedings in Scotland 2022-23

The latest criminal proceedings statistics for 2022-23 have been published today by Scotland’s Chief Statistician. These figures demonstrate the continued recovery of the justice system following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2022-23 marked a return to more normal court capacities following the court closures and reduced capacities during 2020-21 and 2021-22. However, it does reflect the challenges of dealing with the resulting backlog of cases and despite an increase in overall volume of proceedings in 2022-23 these remained below 2019-20 levels. Although the impact of the pandemic is evident in these latest figures, caution should be taken in attributing any changes entirely to this. As the data continues to be affected by the pandemic and the justice system’s recovery, figures for 2022-23, alongside those from 2020-21 onwards, should not be considered indicative of longer-term trends.

In 2022-23 a total of 79,173 people were proceeded against in court, an increase of 17% from 2021-22 (67,698 people).  Of these, 68,067 people were convicted of at least one of the charges against them. This was an increase of 15% from 2021-22 (59,343 people).

Increases were seen across almost all crime and offence groups. Convictions for non-sexual crimes of violence rose 23% and sexual crimes increased by 10%.

The number of convictions for rape and attempted rape increased by 17% from 160 in 2021-22 to 187 in 2022-23.

Convictions for crimes under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 rose by 11%, from 690 in 2021-22 to 763 in 2022-23.

The number of people convicted of a crime with a statutory domestic abuse aggravation increased by four from 2021-22, to 7,805 convictions.

The total number of convictions rose by 15%, and those resulting in a custodial sentence increased by 9% (from 8,186 in 2021-22 to 8,923 in 2022-23). Custodial sentences represented 13% of sentences imposed for all convictions in 2022-23.

The average length of custodial sentence for all crimes, excluding life sentences, in 2022-23 was 386 days, which was 3% longer than in 2021-22 (375 days).

In 2022-23, 24% (16,246) of people convicted were given a community sentence. This was a 15% increase from 2021-22 (14,139).

In 2022-23, 26,562 bail orders were made. This was an increase of 11% from 2021-22 (23,901).

There are a number of measures available to the police and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) for dealing with minor offences directly.

The total number of police disposals remained steady from 31,271 in 2021-22 to 31,278 in 2022-23. Recorded Police Warnings made up 68% (21,127) of all police disposals this year and most were issued for drugs offences, threatening and abusive behaviour, and common assault.

The number of COPFS disposals decreased by 5% between 2021-22 and 2022-23 to 30,770. This was driven by a 30% decrease in the number of Fiscal Warnings to 3,508, and over the same period Fiscal Fixed Penalties decreased by 6% (to 11,364) and Fiscal Combined Fines and Compensation increased by 47% (to 4,170).

Background

Please note this publication covers the period ending in March 2023, so court volumes presented here were affected by the justice system’s recovery from the pandemic as noted above.

The full statistical publication is available at Criminal Proceedings in Scotland.

This publication presents statistics on court proceedings, sentencing and non-court disposals issued by Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. It also contains statistics on bail orders and undertakings.

Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff – more information on the standards of official statistics in Scotland can be accessed at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/About