Criminal justice social work statistics: 2019 to 2020

National-level information, as well as some local authority breakdowns, on criminal justice social work activity in Scotland. Also includes data on justice social work services and social work orders, as well as characteristics of the individuals involved.


Table 2 Social work orders: 2013-14 to 2019-20

Orders commenced 20,457 20,121 20,492 20,571 19,485 17,704 17,468
Community payback orders1 18,688 19,065 19,451 19,202 17,881 16,470 16,710
Community service orders2 227 85 .. .. .. .. ..
Probation orders2 138 62 .. .. .. .. ..
With an element of unpaid work2 71 24 .. .. .. .. ..
Supervised attendance orders2 779 358 .. .. .. .. ..
Drug treatment and testing orders1 625 551 533 475 577 600 510
Fiscal work orders4 508 894 1,027 634 248
Individuals with orders commenced 17,682 17,285 17,517 17,490 16,753 15,096 14,845
Community payback orders1 16,082 16,323 16,525 16,160 15,197 13,908 14,122
Community service orders2 219 83 .. .. .. .. ..
Probation orders2 130 61 .. .. .. .. ..
With an element of unpaid work2 66 24 .. .. .. .. ..
Supervised attendance orders2 654 298 .. .. .. .. ..
Drug treatment and testing orders1 597 520 489 446 531 556 476
Fiscal work orders4 503 884 1,025 632 247
Orders in force at 31 March Community payback orders1 16,020 16,821 17,181 17,446 16,742 15,770 16,488
Drug treatment and testing orders1 690 595 561 504 562 589 586
Orders terminated 20,095 20,098 20,555 20,261 20,094 18,713 16,721
Community payback orders1 16,209 18,264 19,091 18,937 18,585 17,442 15,992
Community service orders2 759 245 109 .. .. .. ..
Probation orders2 996 317 127 .. .. .. ..
Supervised attendance orders2 1,454 626 298 .. .. .. ..
Drug treatment and testing orders1 677 646 567 532 519 573 513
Fiscal work orders4 363 792 990 698 216
Proportion of completions/discharges6 72.7 69.9 69.5 69.2 69.3 67.8 68.2
Community payback orders1,3,5 74.3 70.6 70.0 69.3 69.3 68.1 69.0
Community service orders2,5 71.7 66.8 66.4 .. .. .. ..
Probation orders2,5 80.5 79.8 87.7 .. .. .. ..
Supervised attendance orders2,5 59.9 61.0 58.3 .. .. .. ..
Drug treatment and testing orders1,5 52.2 55.5 49.6 45.8 38.9 37.2 39.1
Fiscal work orders4,5 80.4 82.8 85.8 87.1 77.8

1. Figures for community payback orders for the years 2014-15 to 2018-19 and for drug treatment & testing orders for 2017-18 and 2018-19 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 2018-19 and CPOs in force at March 2019 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 were estimated to be in the region of around 200 and 150 for orders commenced in 2015-16 & 2016-17, respectively, and 200 for orders terminated in 2016-17. Since 2016-17, these numbers are estimated to be lower than 100 each year and falling.

3. As a result of revisions made to the 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.

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

5. Successful completion rates are 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 2013-14, less those where the reason for termination was not known).

6. 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.

7. 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.

Contact

Email: Justice_Analysts@gov.scot

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