Criminal justice social work statistics: 2017-2018

2017-2018 statistics on various areas of criminal justice social work in Scotland.


Table 2: Social work orders: 2011-12 to 2017-18

2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-168 2016-177,8 2017-187,8
Orders commenced 19,746 19,659 20,457 20,121 20,492 20,567 19,434
Community payback orders1 10,228 16,061 18,688 19,065 19,451 19,196 17,834
Community service orders2 3,044 693 227 85 .. .. ..
Probation orders2 3,040 514 138 62 .. .. ..
With an element of unpaid work2 1,276 216 71 24 .. .. ..
Supervised attendance orders2 2,877 1,752 779 358 .. .. ..
Drug treatment and testing orders1 557 639 625 551 533 477 573
Fiscal work orders5 n/a n/a n/a n/a 508 894 1,027
Individuals with orders commenced 18,044 17,178 17,684 17,290 17,523 17,492 16,714
Community payback orders1 9,376 13,985 16,084 16,328 16,531 16,162 15,164
Community service orders2 2,933 656 219 83 .. .. ..
Probation orders2 2,833 490 130 61 .. .. ..
   With an element of unpaid work2 1,228 213 66 24 .. .. ..
Supervised attendance orders2 2,380 1,472 654 298 .. .. ..
Drug treatment and testing orders1 522 575 597 520 489 446 525
Fiscal work orders5 n/a n/a n/a n/a 503 884 1,025
Orders in force at 31 March3
Community payback orders1 .. 13,541 16,023 16,828 17,262 17,710 17,579
Drug treatment and testing orders1 .. 742 690 595 561 506 579
Orders terminated 17,213 18,680 20,092 20,094 20,481 20,072 19,455
Community payback orders1 2,616 10,584 16,206 18,260 19,017 18,748 17,965
Community service orders2 4,706 2,037 759 245 109 .. ..
Probation orders2 6,619 3,339 996 317 127 .. ..
Supervised attendance orders2 2,639 2,128 1,454 626 298 .. ..
Drug treatment and testing orders1 633 592 677 646 567 532 500
Fiscal work orders5 n/a n/a n/a n/a 363 792 990
Proportion of completions/discharges6 70.8 71.1 72.7 69.9 69.5 69.3 69.8
Community payback orders1,4,6 71.9 71.1 74.3 70.6 70.0 69.3 69.7
Community service orders2,6 76.6 73.0 71.7 66.8 66.4 .. ..
Probation orders2,6 69.1 77.1 80.5 79.8 87.7 .. ..
Supervised attendance orders2,6 66.5 64.5 59.9 61.0 58.3 .. ..
Drug treatment and testing orders1,6 57.3 53.4 52.2 55.5 49.6 45.8 39.6
Fiscal work orders5,6 n/a n/a n/a n/a 80.4 82.8 85.8

1. Figures for community payback orders for the years 2012-13 to 2016-17 and for drug treatment & testing orders for 2015-16 and 2016-17 have been revised from those previously published due to updated information being received from some local authorities. These revisions are particularly substantive for CPO terminations in 2016-17 and CPOs in force at March 2017 due mainly to some councils reporting that orders had not been getting closed off on their IT systems.

2. Information on community service, probation and supervised attendance orders was not collected from local authorities from 2015-16 for orders commenced and from 2016-17 for orders terminated, due to the small numbers involved. These numbers are estimated to be in the region of around 200, 150 and 50 for orders commenced in 2015-16, 2016-17 & 2017-18, respectively, and 200 and less than 100 for orders terminated in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

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

4. 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.

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

6. Successful completion rates are now calculated by taking the number of orders successfully completed or subject to an early discharge and dividing this by total orders terminated less those which finished because they were transferred out (and as per note 4 above, for 2012-13 and 2013-14, less those where the reason for termination was not known).

7. As a result of the introduction of fiscal work orders in 2015-16 and the non-collection of commencements figures for community service, probation and supervised attendance orders from 2015-16, comparisons for total social work orders commenced over the period covered by this table should be interpreted with caution.

8. As a result of the introduction of fiscal work orders in 2015-16 and the non-collection of terminations figures for community service, probation and supervised attendance orders from 2016-17, comparisons for total social work orders completed/terminated over the period covered by this table should be interpreted with caution.

Back to top