Criminal justice social work statistics: 2020 - 2021

Mainly national-level information on criminal justice social work activity in Scotland in the first full year affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Includes data on justice social work services and social work orders, as well as characteristics of the individuals involved.


Table 2 Social work orders: 2014-15 to 2020-21

2014-15 2015-165,6 2016-175,6 2017-185,6 2018-195,6 2019-205,6 2020-215,6,7
Orders commenced 20,121 20,492 20,569 19,486 17,704 17,564 8,513
Community payback orders1 19,065 19,451 19,200 17,882 16,469 16,800 8,169
Community service orders2 85 .. .. .. .. .. ..
Probation orders2 62 .. .. .. .. .. ..
With an element of unpaid work2 24 .. .. .. .. .. ..
Supervised attendance orders2 358 .. .. .. .. .. ..
Drug treatment and testing orders1 551 533 475 577 601 516 225
Fiscal work orders3 N/A 508 894 1,027 634 248 119
Individuals with orders commenced 17,285 17,517 17,489 16,753 15,097 14,917 7,660
Community payback orders1 16,323 16,525 16,159 15,197 13,909 14,190 7,326
Community service orders2 83 .. .. .. .. .. ..
Probation orders2 61 .. .. .. .. .. ..
With an element of unpaid work2 24 .. .. .. .. .. ..
Supervised attendance orders2 298 .. .. .. .. .. ..
Drug treatment and testing orders1 520 489 446 531 556 480 215
Fiscal work orders3 N/A 503 884 1,025 632 247 119
Orders in force at 31 March
Community payback orders1 16,820 17,180 17,441 16,712 15,667 16,196 14,331
Drug treatment and testing orders1 595 561 504 562 589 577 433
Orders terminated 20,099 20,555 20,263 20,120 18,786 17,015 10,515
Community payback orders1 18,265 19,091 18,939 18,611 17,514 16,271 10,034
Community service orders2 245 109 .. .. .. .. ..
Probation orders2 317 127 .. .. .. .. ..
Supervised attendance orders2 626 298 .. .. .. .. ..
Drug treatment and testing orders1 646 567 532 519 574 528 369
Fiscal work orders3 N/A 363 792 990 698 216 112
Proportion of completions/discharges5 69.9 69.5 69.2 69.3 67.8 68.1 75.2
Community payback orders1,4 70.6 70.0 69.2 69.3 68.1 68.9 75.4
Community service orders2,4 66.8 66.4 .. .. .. .. ..
Probation orders2,4 79.8 87.7 .. .. .. .. ..
Supervised attendance orders2,4 61.0 58.3 .. .. .. .. ..
Drug treatment and testing orders1,4 55.5 49.6 45.8 38.9 37.1 38.9 66.5
Fiscal work orders3,4 N/A 80.4 82.8 85.8 87.1 77.8 82.1

1. Figures for community payback orders for the years 2016-17 to 2019-20 and for drug treatment & testing orders for 2018-19 and 2019-20 have been revised from those previously published due to updated information being received from some local authorities. These revisions are particularly substantive for CPO terminations in 2019-20 and CPOs in force at March 2020 due mainly to some councils reporting that orders had not been getting closed off on their IT systems.

2. Information on community service, probation and supervised attendance orders was not collected from local authorities from 2015-16 for orders commenced and from 2016-17 for orders terminated, due to the small numbers involved. These numbers were estimated to be in the region of around 200 and 150 for orders commenced in 2015-16 & 2016-17, respectively, and 200 for orders terminated in 2016-17. Since 2016-17, these numbers are estimated to be lower than 100 each year and falling.

3. Fiscal work orders were introduced nationally on 1 April 2015, having been piloted in a small number of local authority areas since June 2008.

4. Successful completion rates are calculated by taking the number of orders successfully completed or subject to an early discharge and dividing this by total orders terminated less those which finished because they were transferred out.

5. As a result of the introduction of fiscal work orders in 2015-16 and the non-collection of commencements figures for community service, probation and supervised attendance orders from 2015-16, comparisons for total social work orders commenced over the period covered by this table should be interpreted with caution. 6. As a result of the introduction of fiscal work orders in 2015-16 and the non-collection of terminations figures for community service, probation and supervised attendance orders from 2016-17, comparisons for total social work orders completed/terminated over the period covered by this table should be interpreted with caution.

7. Figures for community payback orders for 2020-21 include estimates for Renfrewshire.

Contact

Email: Justice_Analysts@gov.scot

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