Criminal justice social work statistics in Scotland: 2013-14

5.2 Community payback orders

(Tables 1 and 8 - 20)

5.2.1 Community payback orders (CPOs) were introduced by the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 and replace provisions for community / probation / supervised attendance orders for offences committed from 1 February 2011 onward. They can include one or more of the following requirements:

• offender supervision
• compensation
• unpaid work or other activity
• programme
• residence
• mental health treatment
• drug treatment
• alcohol treatment
• conduct

5.2.2 If an offender fails to comply with the requirements in the order, a restricted movement requirement can also be imposed.

5.2.3 The CPO is available to all courts, with restrictions applying to justice of the peace courts in relation to treatment and programme requirements. More information on the community payback order can be found in Community payback orders practice guidance.

5.2.4 In 2010-11, there were estimated to be around 300 CPOs issued - monthly figures obtained separately from Scottish Court Service provide more details. Local authorities were asked to submit details of 2011-12 orders as part of the aggregate criminal justice social work statistical return. From 2012-13, data on the implementation of the community payback order are being collected at unit level. This allows the scope for looking at how each order progresses and provides more detailed information on outcomes. While it will take a number of years' data to realise the unit level's full potential, this bulletin contains substantially more information than that previously available from the aggregate level collection (see Annex A for more details).

5.2.5 The change in data collection from aggregate to unit level can result in identifying inconsistencies in the data and caution should therefore be exercised when looking at changes in the figures between 2011-12 and the two most recent years. It is also important to note that comparability between the unit level data from 2012-13 and 2013-14 may be affected by the type of offender most likely to complete a community payback order during the first few years of implementation. Orders which finished during 2012‑13 will tend to be lower-tariff orders which generally take less time to complete than those finished during 2013-14.

5.2.6 While there were three local authorities who were not able to provide unit level data for 2012-13, all 32 authorities were able to do so in 2013-14.

5.2.7 A total of 18,600 community payback orders commenced in 2013-14 (Table 1). As expected, this continues to rise compared to previous years as the legacy orders are phased out. People aged 18 to 25 were more likely to be given a CPO than other age group when the population base is taken into account (Chart 4). The prevalence of CPOs would, all other things being equal, be expected to increase between 2012-13 and 2013-14 and it did so for all age groups, with the exception of the 16 and 17 year old group, where it fell from 64 orders per 10,000 population to 55.

5.2.8 Offenders were unemployed in about 62 per cent of cases in 2013-14 (Table 8). Around a fifth were employed or self-employed, and 9 per cent were not economically active.

5.2.9 Ninety-three per cent of community payback orders were issued by sheriff courts, mainly by summary procedure. Stipendiary magistrates and justice of the peace courts each accounted for a further 3 per cent of the total (Table 9).

Chart 4 Community payback orders commenced per 10,000 population by age and gender: 2011-12 to 2013-14

Note: The change in rates between each of the years in the chart reflect the increased use of the community payback order for offences committed on or after February 2011 as the legacy orders are phased out.

5.2.10 There were a total of 17,000 CPOs in force at 31 March 2014 (see Table 1 and the additional datasets which accompany this publication). As expected, this is substantially higher than a year earlier as more CPOs are being issued instead of the legacy orders they replaced. There is not a long enough time series at present for these figures to allow meaningful in-depth commentary and comparison. Patterns for snapshot numbers in force will be discussed further once the data collection becomes more established.

Requirements

5.2.11 Four fifths of community payback orders included a requirement for unpaid work or other activity, and just over half (51 per cent) included offender supervision (Table 10 and Chart 5). There were slightly more level 1 (100 hours or less) work requirements issued in 2013-14 than level 2 (over 100 - 300 hours) requirements (Table 11). Over half (57 per cent) of supervision requirements were for 12 months or less, while a further 39 per cent had lengths between 12 and 24 months (Table 12).

Chart 5 Community payback order requirements: 2011-12 to 2013-14

5.2.12 A conduct requirement was issued for 6 per cent of orders in 2013-14 (Table 10). This continued the downward trend observed since 2011-12, reflecting the 2012 appeal court judgement^[2] that conduct requirements must be specific and include more than general conditions to stay out of trouble or to refrain from committing another criminal offence. This will inevitably have also had an effect on the level of supervision requirements, as orders with a conduct requirement should also include supervision.

5.2.13 Other requirements included programme (6 per cent, and now more prevalent than conduct requirements) and compensation (3 per cent). Treatment for alcohol, drug and mental health problems accounted for relatively few requirements, ranging from just over 2 per cent (alcohol) to less than half of one per cent (mental health).

5.2.14 The average number of requirements per order has fallen between 2012-13 and 2013-14.

5.2.15 Sixty-one per cent of community payback orders commenced in 2013-14 included one requirement - normally unpaid work/other activity or supervision. A further 29 per cent had two requirements (normally including supervision) (Chart 6).

Chart 6 Community payback orders commenced by number of requirements: 2013-14

Timescales for implementation

5.2.16 The Scottish Government Community payback orders practice guidance is intended to support practitioners and managers to improve their performance and work towards the achievement of the national outcomes and standards for social work services in the criminal justice system. The guidance contains a number of principles of best practice, including:

• the first direct contact with the offender should take place on the same day as the order is imposed, or the next working day
• where an offender supervision requirement has been imposed, the appointed case manager should arrange to meet the individual within five working days of the date of imposition of the order
• where an unpaid work or other activity requirement has been imposed, arrangements should be made for the individual to begin the induction process within 5 working days of the date of imposition of the order
• where an unpaid work or other activity requirement is imposed, the work placement should begin within 7 working days of imposition of the order.

5.2.17 In the majority of cases (79 per cent) in 2013-14, first direct contact took place within one working day of the order being imposed (Table 13). This proportion has remained at similar levels (between 75 and 80 per cent) in each of the last three years.

5.2.18 The first induction / case management meeting took place within five working days in just over 80 per cent of cases in 2013-14, with a further tenth taking place between six and ten working days. These trends have also remained fairly level over the last three years.

5.2.19 There may be various reasons why these timescales are not met. Almost two-fifths of delays in first direct contact were due to offenders missing their appointment, while the unavailability of a social worker or other non client-related reason accounted for a further 30 per cent. Other client-based reasons included being subject to another sentence, employment or illness. Delays for the first induction / case management meeting were due to a wide range of reasons: 17 per cent of cases involved the offender being subject to another sentence, employment or illness, another 20 per cent were due to delays in first making contact or staff availability, and just under half the cases involved other client-based reasons (Table 14).

5.2.20 Almost three quarters of cases commenced work placements within seven working days (Table 15). This is higher than in both 2012-13 and 2011-12, when just over 70 per cent began within this timescale. In 2013-14, a further 16 per cent began their work placement within three weeks.

Terminations

5.2.21 A total of 15,300 community payback orders were terminated in 2013-14 (Table 17). Seventy-two per cent (11,100) of these orders were successfully completed or resulted in an early discharge (Table 18). A further 16 per cent were revoked following a breach application to the courts, 5 per cent were revoked following a review and the remaining 7 per cent were terminated for other reasons (including transfer to another area or death).

5.2.22 Three-quarters of orders terminated during 2013-14 did not involve any breach applications during the lifetime of the order (Table 19). For the remainder, there were a total of 4,400 breach applications made (Table 17). The majority of breach applications (78 per cent) were lodged with the court within five working days of the decision to make an application.

5.2.23 For CPOs revoked due to breach, the most likely outcome was that a custodial sentence was imposed (34 per cent) followed by a new order being imposed or another outcome (28 and 29 per cent respectively) (Table 18). About a fifth of orders revoked due to review resulted in a custodial sentence, while 56 per cent resulted in another outcome.

5.2.24 Completion rates varied by age, number of requirements and employment status (Chart 7). They showed a fairly consistent increase with age, ranging from 66 per cent for 16 & 17 year olds to 81 per cent for the over 40s. Three quarters of offenders with one requirement completed their order, with a smaller proportion of 67 per cent for orders with two or more requirements. Eighty-two per cent of those who were employed or self-employed completed successfully, compared to just under 70 per cent of those who were unemployed or economically inactive.

Chart 7 Completions/discharges of community payback orders by gender, age, employment status and number of requirements: 2013-14