Non harassment orders: FOI release

Information requested

1. Can you provide the number of non-harassment orders applied for each calendar year from 2021 to the date of this request?
2. Can you provide the number that have been granted and the number that have been rejected for each calendar year from 2021 to the date of this request?
3. How many breaches of non-harassment orders have been raised in the Scottish courts for each calendar year from 2021 to the date of this request?
4. The average time, each year over the past three years, between a non-harassment order being requested in the Scottish courts and a hearing to determine whether it is granted or rejected?

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in the format you asked for.

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information as requested. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have part of the information you have requested.

Q1 and Q2

Non-harassment orders initiated, granted and dismissed in civil courts, 2020-21 to 2022-23

Financial Year	Initiated	Granted	Dismissed
2022-23	7	3	5
2021-22	12	3	3
2020-21	13	1	2

Notes:
1. The statistics only relate to the main/principal crave of cases. These are likely an underestimate as breaches of non-harassment orders in the civil court exceed the initiated and subsequent disposals presented in this table.

2. The statistics shown for initiations and those disposed of do not necessarily refer to the same cases. This is because not all cases initiated in one year will be disposed of in that same year.

3. The statistics shown relate to the number of cases and may not necessarily equal the number of people seeking an order.

4. All the cases shown were heard in the sheriff courts. No non-harassment orders have been initiated (and disposed of) at the Court of Session for the period in question.

5. We are only able to provide statistics for financial years as redesigning to calendar years would exceed the FOI cost limit.

Q3

The number of prosecutions for breach of non-harassment orders in 2020-21 and 2021-22

	2020-21	2021-22
Breach of non-harassment order (criminal court)	344	496
Breach of non-harassment order (civil court)	32	30

The number of convictions for breach of non-harassment orders in 2020-21 and 2021-22

	2020-21	2021-22
Breach of non-harassment order (criminal court)	337	464
Breach of non-harassment order (civil court)	31	26

Notes:
1. The latest available statistics for breach of non-harassment orders go up to 2021-22

2. We are only able to provide statistics for financial years as redesigning to calendar years would exceed the FOI cost limit.

3. Although a breach of a non-harassment order will be dealt with in a criminal court, data are presented based on the type of court in which the non-harassment order was originally issued (criminal or civil).

Q4.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The reason why we don't have the information is that the data we receive from our supplier does not include details of average journey times from a nonharassment order being requested to when the hearing takes place.

Conviction data for Criminal Proceedings in Scotland is by main sentence, e.g., custodial or community sentence, financial penalty. Although we know a non-harassment order may also be issued in a criminal court as part of a sentence, the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

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.