Statistics regarding sentences for drug related offences: FOI release

Information requested

1. The number of custodial sentences handed out for all drugs offences in Scotland, between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2009.

2. The average sentence length in months for persons sentenced to immediate custody for drugs offences in Scotland, between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 2005, between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2008, and between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2020.

Response

The information requested is provided in the following tables. Please note our data is based on concluded cases and, therefore, the custodial sentences are immediate.

Number of people receiving custodial sentences for drugs offences, where main charge, by calendar years, 2007 to 2009
Year of Sentence	2007	2008	2009
Total	1,272	1,368	1,423

Average length(1) of custodial sentence for drugs offences, for various calendar years requested from 1997 to 2020(2)
Year of sentence	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2007	2008	2019	2020
Sentence in days	609	539	610	678	667	657	706	640	596	574	536	542	543
Approximate month equivalent(3)	20	18	20	22	22	22	23	21	20	19	18	18	18

(1) Average sentence lengths exclude life sentences and indeterminate detention.
(2) Our criminal proceedings database is collated by financial year i.e. 1 April to 31 March, therefore, the data provided above for 2020 only relates to January, February and March.
(3) Our database output is based on days and we have calculated the months by using an average of 30.42 days per month.
Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database

You may be interested to know that information on criminal proceedings, including custodial sentences and average sentences, is published as part of our annual statistical bulletin series on our website: Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). The main tables to each publication can be found under 'Supporting documents' and contain several tables providing various breakdowns on sentences including a 10 year time series.

You can access archived bulletins covering the period 1996 to 2013-14, and separate datasets from 2007-08, here: Crime and Justice - Publications - Criminal Proceedings (webarchive.org.uk).

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