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

Summary

This pack provides information on the impact of COVID-19 on the Justice system during December 2021.

Data has been gathered from a number of different sources and may be subject to future revision.

Police activity

• The number of crimes recorded in December 2021 was lower than that in both December 2020 and December 2019.
• The number of Domestic Abuse incidents recorded by the Police in December 2021 was higher than the level seen in December 2020 but lower than in December 2019.

Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), Courts & Prisons

COPFS and SCTS data for December are impacted by public holidays and therefore

• lower numbers are to be expected.
• Custody reports received by COPFS remain consistently below pre-pandemic levels and undertaking reports remain consistently above pre-pandemic levels.

• Sixteen additional trial courts per day have been added to address backlogs.
• Initiations in the civil court remain below 19-20 levels, while disposals have almost returned to 19-20 levels.
• In line with previous years, overall numbers and remand populations fell during December.
• The proportion of prisoners on remand remains at a historically high level.

101 & 999 call volumes and incidents recorded

Owing to the stopping of the Operation Talla daily overview in mid-November we are no longer including these figures here.

A full breakdown of calls and incident volumes is still available from Police Scotland's Enforcement and response data page.

Coronavirus legislation intervention activity

Following a decline to almost zero interventions, Operation Talla reporting of interventions was stopped in mid-November. The final report from 17^th November 2021 showed no interventions in November to that point.