The Scottish Government

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5 Criminal Justice

5.1 Costs incurred in response to alcohol misuse in this category are in 4 main areas: police time: court proceedings: custodial sentences and costs to other emergency services.

5.2 The total number of specific alcohol related offencesⁱⁱ recorded by the police in 2005/06 is shown in table 2. They make up 1.8% of total recorded crime ¹⁶.

Table 2: number of alcohol related crime recorded 2005/06

5.3 In addition, it is assumed that alcohol is a key factor in a number of other offences. In England, police superintendents have indicated that alcohol is present in half of all crime ¹⁷. In particular, alcohol is associated with violent crime. The British Crime Survey 2006/07 states that 46% of violent incident victims believed their attackers to be under the influence. Of the 106 accused persons in homicide cases recorded in 2004/05 whose drink/drug status was known at the time of the homicide (56 % of all accused), 46 % were drunk ¹⁸.

5.4 The British Crime Survey 2006/07 also found that alcohol was involved in 39% of cases of domestic abuse. In the evaluation of the Pilot Domestic Abuse Court in Glasgow (2007) police identified that in 43% of cases "the alleged offender had consumed enough alcohol to merit mention" ¹⁹.

5.5 Although alcohol is cited as a key factor in a number of offences it is likely that it is interacting with other social, environmental and individual factors. It is assumed that in the case of violent crimes listed in table 3, alcohol was involved in 40% of cases.

Table 3: number of violent offences in which alcohol is assumed to be the key factor

5.6 For all other recorded crime, it is assumed that alcohol is involved in around 25% of offences. (This is consistent with previous estimates ²⁰.) This may well be an underestimate. Taken together this represents 27% of recorded crime in Scotland in 2005/06.

5.7 The total cost of policing in Scotland in 2006/07 Was £1.06bn. Recorded offences directly attributable to alcohol represent 1.8%. Those in which alcohol was a key factor have been estimated to be over 25%. The total cost of policing attributable in response to alcohol misuse is estimated at £288m. This will be an underestimate if the percentage of cases in which alcohol is the critical factor is higher than the assumptions used.

5.8 There are costs associated with the judicial process. In 2005/06 96% of cases prosecuted were dealt with in a Sheriff Summary or District Court ²¹. A weighted average for prosecution costs for both sheriff and district court was calculated (61% of all prosecutions are in sheriff court and 35% in district). Court costs are available only for sheriff court. In 2005/06 there were 8,500 prosecutions for drink related offences. Additionally, a number of prosecutions are likely to be for offences in which alcohol was a key factor. The assumption of 27% of cases overall being alcohol related is applied.

5.9 A number of factors are likely to make the figure of £19m an underestimate. The number of cases involving alcohol may be higher than 27%. If remitted to Sheriff Solemn ( i.e. with a jury) or High Court, then costs will be considerable higher. Neither do the costs include any estimate for legal aid.

5.10 There are costs incurred for those receiving a custodial sentence where alcohol was involved in the offence. This can either be because the sentence is for an "alcohol related offence" or where alcohol was a key factor in the perpetration of an offence.

5.11 Specific alcohol related offences for which custodial sentences were received are detailed in table 4.

Table 4: number convicted & awarded custodial sentence & sentence lengths for alcohol related crime 2005/06

5.12 The average annual cost per prison place in 2006/07 is £40,499. In any one year, prisoners in custody for alcohol related crime would make up only around £2m of expenditure.

5.13 In the same manner as assumptions have been made regarding the proportion of other offences which are alcohol related an estimate has been applied to the number of convictions for offences in which alcohol misuse was a key factor. In 2005/06 12,719 crimes or offences attracted a custodial sentence. In 2006/07, the average daily population in Scottish prisons totalled 7,183. If, like recorded crime, around 27% of them are incarcerated as a result of alcohol related crime then, annually, that represents a cost of £78m. This excludes the impact of any cost attached to treatment programmes within prison.

5.14 Fire Service: alcohol plays a role in both deliberate and accidental fires. Recorded crime includes "fire raising" and the figures from both the police and fire brigade suggest that around 10% of all primary fires ⁱⁱⁱ are deliberate. Using the same 25% assumption as for other crimes, this suggests that alcohol played a part in around 1200 fires annually which are started deliberately. This represents 2.6% of the total number of fires attended. The proportionate expenditure in 2006/07 on fire fighting and rescue is £6.2m.

5.15 Secondary fires, for which there is not as much detailed information, may include some fires associated with vandalism. The most common secondary fires were refuse fires (69 per cent) and grassland fires (21 per cent) ²². A proportion of these is likely to be alcohol related. The cost of these is not estimated here.

5.16 Alcohol is also implicated in accidental fires: 24 people lost their lives in alcohol-related fires in Scotland in 2006/07. Alcohol is one of the greatest contributory factors to people dying in accidental dwelling fires in Scotland and remains a significant problem for fire and rescue services ²³. There is no data on the percentage of accidental non fatal fires that involve alcohol.

5.17 A proportion of time for the fire and rescue services are spent dealing with road traffic accidents. There is no data available indicating the percentage of these in which alcohol is a factor.

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