Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report: January 2025

*New* Number of prosecutions and convictions in 2022-23 demonstrated the continued recovery of the justice system following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of people convicted in Scottish courts rose by 15% from 2021-22 to 68,067 but remain below a typical pre-pandemic year.

Chart 9: Number of people convicted in Scottish courts – 2012-13 to 2021-22

Note: Data from 2020-21 and 2021-22 are affected by the Covid pandemic and should not be considered indicative of long term trends.

*New* Rise in convictions across all groups between 2021-22 and 2022-23. Convictions for non-sexual crimes of violences rose by the most (up 23%) followed by miscellaneous offences (up 22%). These were among four groups which were higher than their pre-pandemic (2019-20) levels in 2022-23. Crimes of dishonesty (up 8%) and sexual crimes (up 10%) rose by the least proportionately. Convictions for crimes under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act increased by 11%, from 690 convictions in 2021-22 to 763 convictions in 2022-23.

*New* Rise in numbers of community sentences issued and new high in proportion of sentences in 2022-23. The number of community sentences in court rose by 15% between 2021-22 and 2022-23, from 14,139 to 16,246, in line with the overall rise in convictions. The proportion of all convictions resulting in a community sentence rose to 24%, the highest in the past decade.

*New* Average custodial sentence exceeds one year. For those who are convicted in court and sentenced to custody, the average sentence in 2022-23 was over twelve months (386 days) in length. This was 3% longer than in 2021-22, and 31% longer than the average of 295 days in 2013-14. The proportion of people receiving a sentence of less than one year remained at 73% in 2022-23, the lowest proportion of the last decade.

*New* Community payback orders slightly more likely to have supervision than unpaid work. There were 15,100 community payback orders imposed in 2023-24. This was 3% higher than in 2022-23 but still 10% lower than in 2019-20. In 2023-24, 68.0 per cent were issued with an unpaid work requirement, while slightly more (68.2 per cent) were issued with a supervision requirement.

Chart 10: Community payback orders imposed – percentage of orders with different requirements, 2023-24

Reconviction rates are still yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, but have increased from the 2019-20 cohort. The overall reconviction rate increased by 2.6 percentage points over the last year from 24.3% in 2019-20 to 26.9% in 2020-21. Data for 2020-21 was still affected by COVID-19, but the follow up period, up to March 2022 depending on when an offender entered the cohort, saw less COVID restrictions than the previous year.

The average number of reconvictions per offender has decreased over time. The average number of reconvictions per offender was 20% lower in 2020-21 compared to 2011-12. The fall in the longer term was driven by younger age groups, with average reconvictions decreasing by 16% for under 21s, 13% for 21-25 year olds, 22% for 26-30 year olds, and 19% for 31-40 year olds. In contrast, average reconvictions returned to levels similar to a decade ago for those over 40.

Chart 11: Average reconvictions per offender by age, 2011-12 and 2020-21 cohorts

Number of children referred to SCRA on offence grounds rose by six per cent in the last year. Statistics published by the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA) show that, in 2023-24, 2,733 children were referred to the reporter on offence grounds. This constitutes a rise of 6% from 2022-23 and is similar to the level of 2,761 in 2015-16.

The most recent ten years show a general downward trend in initiated civil law cases, latest figures show gradual recovery from the pandemic. There were 60,943 civil law cases initiated across the Court of Session and sheriff courts in 2022-23 (excluding summary applications). This represents an increase of 13% from 2021-22.

Most case types increased between 2021-22 and 2022-23, except family which fell by 7%. The highest increases were seen in evictions (up 128%) and damages (up 28%). The increase in evictions follows a large Covid-related fall in 2020-21 to a record low. The increase in eviction initiations in 2022-23 is moving towards the levels observed pre-pandemic but is still 63% lower than in 2019-20. Damages too are still substantially lower than pre-pandemic levels (56% down on 2019-20). Personal injury (up 12%) and repossession (up 14%) recorded the lowest increases between 2021-22 and 2022-23.