Justice Social Work Statistics in Scotland: 2023-24 – Part 1

1 Introduction

The annual publication for Justice Social Work statistics has been split into two parts for the first time this year. The splitting of the publication allows the reporting of part of the annual data collection to be provided to users about four months earlier. There has been no significant change to the data collected, only to the way it has been published. The 2023-24 local authority data and the main national trend data can be found in the additional datasets published alongside this report.

This publication and the accompanying tables referred to throughout, provide statistics on the following areas of justice social work:

• Diversion from prosecution
• Fiscal work orders
• Bail supervision
• Structured deferred sentences
• Statutory/voluntary throughcare
• Pre-release reports
• Home detention curfew assessments
• Court-based services

Part 2 of this publication will include information and accompanying tables on these areas of justice social work:

• Community payback orders
• Drug treatment and testing orders
• Justice social work reports

This will be published in the first quarter of 2025. Until then, the current information for part 2 topics is available via the report: Justice Social Work Statistics in Scotland: 2022-23.

This improvement to timing is to support the recommendations from the Review of Justice Social Work Statistics in Scotland. More information on the recommendations can be found in Annex C.

These statistics are accredited official statistics. The Office for Statistics Regulation has independently reviewed and accredited these statistics as complying with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

These statistics were accredited in July 2011, in assessment report 128 on the UK Statistics Authority website

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

More information about Scottish Government statistics is available on the Scottish Government website.