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Criminal Appeal Statistics 2007-08
28/10/2008
Scotland's Chief Statistician today published Criminal Appeal Statistics, Scotland, 2007-08.
This presents statistics which show that a total of just over 2,250 criminal appeals against conviction and sentence were concluded in 2007-08. This represents an increase of 6 per cent compared with 2006-07, but is still 30 per cent lower than the equivalent figure 10 years ago.
Other main findings include:
- The percentage of appeals which are Summary Sentence continued to decrease to 50 per cent of the total, whereas Solemn Sentence appeals increased, now accounting for 31 per cent of the total. The proportion of Solemn Conviction and Summary Conviction appeals remained at about the same level as in previous years
- Between 2006-07 and 2007-08, the overall average duration of completed criminal appeals increased by 14 per cent to 151 days, returning to the average recorded in 2005-06
- Appeals against conviction generally took longer to complete than appeals against sentence only - 382 days vs 158 days for solemn appeals and 220 days vs 96 days for summary appeals
- Sixty seven per cent of appeals involved cases where a custodial sentence had been imposed
- Of the total number of appeals completed in 2007-08, 61 per cent were sifted or abandoned. Thirty nine per cent of all appeals progressed to a full appeal hearing - 15 per cent were subsequently dismissed, 3 per cent resulted in a successful appeal against conviction and 20 per cent resulted in a successful appeal against sentence.