Restorative justice services: FOI release

Information requested

• How many providers of restorative justice services there are across Scotland as of the present date. Please provide a comprehensive list including the service provider, their location and whether they provide remote services.
• The amount of funding the Scottish Government has provided to these service providers in the following financial years: 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24.
• How many people have used restorative justice services in the financial years of 2021-22, 2022- 23 and 2023-24.

Whether the Scottish Government believes it has achieved its aims of training for restorative justice facilitators, increasing public awareness and understanding of restorative justice and improve information sharing between justice services. If so, how it believes those goals have been achieved and whether there is any data backing this up.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

The answer to your questions are as follows:

Q: How many providers of restorative justice services there are across Scotland as of the present date. Please provide a comprehensive list including the service provider, their location and whether they provide remote services. -
A: The Scottish Government does not hold this information. However a baseline survey conducted in February 2018 did seek to identify current service providers at that point in time. The survey can be found here - Restorative Justice Baseline survey.

Q: The amount of funding the Scottish Government has provided to these service providers in the following financial years: 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24.
A: To aid in the development of Restorative Justice Services in Scotland, the Scottish Government provided £50,000 in 2021-22 to Community Justice Scotland, £420,997 in 2022-23 to Community Justice Scotland, Children and Young People's Centre for Justice (CYCJ), Strathclyde University and Thriving Survivors. In the current financial year, 2023-24, we are committed to providing £492,039 to Community Justice Scotland, CYCJ and Thriving Survivors to continue the development of the Hub and Spoke model of Restorative Justice service delivery.

Q: How many people have used restorative justice services in the financial years of 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24.
A: The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Q: Whether the Scottish Government believes it has achieved its aims of training for restorative justice facilitators, increasing public awareness and understanding of restorative justice and improve information sharing between justice services. If so, how it believes those goals have been achieved and whether there is any data backing this up.
A: Further work is required to fully realise these goals. The current position was recently set out in the following answer to Parliamentary question (S6W-21257). The response can be found here Motions, Questions and Answers Search - Parliamentary Business : Scottish Parliament.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.