Justice Social Work Statistics: 2023-24

The Chief Statistician has released part 1 of the 2023-24 justice social work statistics. This includes information on justice social work services, as well as characteristics of the people involved. Part 2 will be published in early 2025.

The number of diversion from prosecution cases commenced rose by 28 per cent between 2022-23 and 2023-24 from 2,600 to 3,400. This was the highest level in the last ten years.

The number of bail supervision cases rose by 17 per cent between 2022-23 and 2023-24 to 1,300. This was the highest in the last ten years.

There were 1,400 structured deferred sentences imposed in 2023-24. This was eight per cent more than in 2022-23 and the highest in the last six years.

There were 1,100 statutory custody-based throughcare cases commenced in 2023-24, 18 per cent up on 940 in 2022-23. This was the highest in the last ten years.

The number of statutory community-based throughcare cases commenced was 870 in 2023-24, three per cent down on 890 in 2022-23. This was the 2^nd lowest level in the last ten years.

Background

 Full statistical publication. Full statistical publication

Accredited official statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

 Justice social work statistics has been split into two parts for the first time this year. The splitting of the publication allows the reporting of part of the annual data collection to be provided to users about four months earlier.

 This part 1 publication provides statistics on the following areas of justice social work:

• - Diversion from prosecution
• - Fiscal work orders
• - Bail supervision
• - Structured deferred sentences
• - Statutory/voluntary throughcare
• - Pre-release reports
• - Home detention curfew assessments
• - Court-based services

Information is provided for 2023-24 and, where possible, for the years back to 2014-15, in order to show trends over the last ten years. Tables at local authority area level, which have been updated to include 2023-24, have also been published. For part 1 topics, these tables contain ten years of data.

The trend data supplied in the publication was impacted by the Coronavirus (Covid) pandemic. There were significant public health measures, including two national lockdowns, in place during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 recording years. For example, many courts were temporarily closed early in 2020-21 and there was reduced capacity when courts reopened. This means that statistics for most areas of justice social work were impacted in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Caution is advised in comparing data from these two years with other years.

Further statistics on Justice Social Work