Coronavirus (COVID-19): Justice Analytical Services data report - August 2021

Prison population

While the overall prison population is lower than pre-pandemic levels, the number of people held on remand remains at a historic high. The changing levels across groups that are required by law to be housed separately – like those on remand – pose new difficulties in the management of the prison population.

In August 2021 (up until the morning of Wednesday 1st September 2021):

• the population increased by 30 to 7,578
• 2,088 were on remand: 1,778 (23%) untried & 310 (4%) awaiting sentence
• 66% of arrivals were untried (609 of 925), and 17% awaiting sentence (161)

During the pandemic, growth in the prison population was largely driven by growth in the remand population. However, the prison population rose in June 2021 while remand population remained relatively static. This is likely an effect of increasing court activity following the easing of public health restrictions.

Remand Arrival Offences

There were 750 un-sentenced arrivals to prison with known offence types in August, awaiting trial or sentence for the following alleged offences

Note: Double-counting may occur where an individual is absent from prison for a night in the week and then returns. Where an individual has multiple alleged offence types, the offence towards the top of the list in the chart is used as the index offence.

Further Information:

Latest published annual prison population statistics can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-prison-population-statistics-legal-status-2019-20/