Scottish Government Equality Outcomes: Religion and Belief Evidence Review

9 JUSTICE

9.1 This section reviews the religious composition of the prison population and of the legal profession, and looks at access to justice.

9.2 Scotland's prison statistics show that 29% of offenders in custody stated they belonged to the Church of Scotland while 23% were Roman Catholic^[41]. By comparison, 42% of Scotland's population are Church of Scotland, and Roman Catholics make up only 16%^[42]. Forty percent of offenders in custody say they do not have a religion. This proportion of 'no religion' was higher for female offenders (50%) than male offenders (39%).

9.3 A 2006 survey of the legal profession in Scotland^[43] found that:

• 37% considered themselves to be Church of Scotland.
• 36% considered they had no religion/faith.
• 13% considered they were Roman Catholic.
• 7% considered they were other Christian.
• 1% or less considered they were in each of the categories of Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh and other.
• 3% did not state a religion/faith in response to the question (in contrast to those who responded that they had no religion/faith).

9.4 Within the Scottish legal profession, between 2006 and 2009, there was minimal change in the numbers relating to religious belief^[44]. Those indicating affiliation to the Church of Scotland fell from 37% to 35%, whilst those of Roman Catholic faith rose slightly from 13% to 14%. Groups defined as 'other Christian' remained the same at 7%. Those not affiliating themselves with any religious group rose from 36% to 39% over the same time frame. Those refraining from answering fell from 3% to 2%.

9.5 Regarding access to justice and legal aid, no published information has yet been found on the religion of applicants for civil or criminal legal aid. The Scottish Legal Aid Board^[45] currently publishes equality statistics on legal aid by gender and age only; its sample sizes for disability and ethnicity are too small to report. Its client satisfaction survey^[46] analyses respondents by age, disability and ethnicity, but not by religion. The Scottish Legal Aid Board expects^[47] to publish surveys of applicants for both civil and criminal legal aid during 2013.