Criminal justice social work statistics in Scotland: 2015-2016

Table 2 Social work orders: 2009-10 to 2015-16

1. Information on orders commenced was collected from local authorities from 2011-12 onward. Figures from the Scottish Court Service suggest around 300 community payback orders were imposed in 2010-11. Figures are available at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/CPOs.

2. 2012-13, 2013-14 & 2014-15 figures for community payback orders and drug treatment & testing orders revised since original publication due to updated information being received from some local authorities. These revisions are particularly substantive for CPO terminations in 2014-15 and CPOs in force at March 2015 due mainly to some councils reporting that orders had not been getting closed off on their IT systems.

3. Information on community service, probation and supervised attendance orders commenced was not collected from local authorities in 2015-16 due to the small numbers involved. The total for these orders is estimated to be in the region of around 200.

4. Data based on unit-level returns from 2012-13 onward.

5. As a result of revisions made to the 2012-13 & 2013-14 figures for community payback orders since their original publication, the reason for termination is not known for a small number of orders. The figures for the proportion of completions/discharges have therefore been calculated as a proportion of the orders where this reason was known.

6. Fiscal work orders were introduced nationally on 1 April 2015, having been piloted in a small number of local authority areas since June 2008.

7. As a result of the introduction of fiscal work orders and the non-collection of commencements figures for community service, probation and supervised attendance orders in 2015-16, comparisons for total social work orders between 2015-16 and previous years should be interpreted with caution.