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

3 Statistical context

The trend data supplied in this publication needs to take into account the impact of the Coronavirus (Covid) pandemic. There were significant public health measures, including two national lockdowns, in place during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 recording years. For example, many courts were temporarily closed early in 2020-21. There was also reduced capacity when courts reopened. This means that statistics for most areas of justice social work were impacted in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Caution is advised in comparing data from these two years to other years.

The numbers quoted in the text in this publication are rounded. The tables and charts published alongside this report contain unrounded figures. More information on this is available in section 11.

In 2022-23, local authorities were asked for more data on the bail activities which their justice social work teams support. With these changes being introduced during that collection year, it was decided to consider these as ‘official statistics in development’. A few local authorities could not supply this information in full due to the short notice of these changes being made by the Scottish Government. There were some concerns with the quality of the data from 2022-23, and additional questions were therefore asked to help understand how to report this information in 2023-24.

For 2023-24, these bail statistics will still be classified as official statistics in development as, even though there has been improvement to the quality of this information, it is felt that additional work still needs to be done to ensure consistent reporting.