Scottish Government

Annex

Notes and Definitions

Background

14.1 Criminal justice social work services in Scotland are provided by local authorities throughout the country.

14.2 In 1991 the Scottish Office's Social Work Services Group published National Objectives and Standards for criminal justice social work services. These National Standards had been agreed in consultation with local authorities and all the key stakeholders of the criminal justice system. The National Standards set out a framework of objectives and standards for the delivery of criminal justice social work services and how non-compliance by offenders with orders of the court should be handled.

Community Justice Authorities ( CJAs)

14.3 The Management of Offenders etc. (Scotland) Act 2005 established provisions for eight local CJAs. These authorities have been established to provide a co-ordinated approach to planning and monitoring the delivery of offender services by planning, managing performance and reporting on performance of local authorities or groups of local authorities and key partner agencies including the Scottish Prison Service ( SPS). Their aim is to target services to reduce reoffending and to ensure close co-operation between community and prison services to aid the rehabilitation of offenders. Each CJA consists of a Chief Officer, elected members of local authorities and support staff to carry out the functions of the CJA. Tables in the form of datasets, at CJA and local authority area level, have been published on the Scottish Government website as part of this publication ( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets).

14.4 There are 8 CJAs and they contain the following Local Authority areas:

Social Enquiry Reports

14.5 The main purpose of a Social Enquiry Report ( SER) is to provide information about the offender and their background circumstances, prior to sentencing, which helps the court decide how to deal with the case. Reports can be requested by the court for any case but must be requested before imposing a custodial sentence for the first time, or if the offender is under 21 years of age. A court must obtain a SER before making a community service or probation order.

14.6 In some cases, supplementary reports may be submitted to the court. These are shorter reports which provide supplementary information (in addition to that previously provided in a SER).

Community Service

14.7 A person 16 years of age or over and convicted of a crime or an offence can be given a Community Service Order ( CSO) to carry out unpaid work in the community. CSOs can only be made by courts as an alternative to a custodial sentence. The court must also be satisfied that four conditions are met:

• the offender must agree to the CSO;
• community service must be available in the area where the offender lives;
• the offender is suitable for community service;
• suitable work is available.

14.8 Community Service Orders are for a minimum of 80 hours up to a maximum of 240 hours under summary procedure and 300 hours under solemn procedure. They must be completed within 12 months.

Probation

14.9 Probation Orders provide one of the opportunities for criminal justice social work services to focus on offending behaviour. Prior consent of the offender is required, and the order should be informed by an Action Plan in which the offender agrees to address their offending behaviour and its underlying causes. Probation Orders can be used very flexibly by the courts and additional conditions can be attached regarding the offender undertaking unpaid work, their place of residence, curfew (including electronic monitoring), financial recompense to the victim or attendance at a specialist programme such as alcohol or drug treatment. The minimum length of a Probation Order is 6 months and the maximum is 3 years.

Supervised Attendance

14.10 Supervised Attendance Orders require an offender who has failed to pay a fine to undertake a programme of designated activities for a specified number of hours. The programme can involve:

• activities of an educational nature;
• activities designed to stimulate interest and encourage the constructive use of time;
• activities involving unpaid work in the community.

14.11 Supervised Attendance Orders run for between 10 and 100 hours (subject to a limit of 50 hours where the outstanding amount is up to £200) as ordered by the court.

Drug Treatment and Testing

14.12 The Drug Treatment and Testing Order ( DTTO) is a high tariff disposal for drug mis-using offenders who might otherwise receive a custodial sentence, and is available to the High Court, Sheriff Court and Glasgow Stipendiary Magistrates Court. The Order contains features unique to a community disposal, including a requirement for regular reviews by the court and a requirement that the offender consent to frequent random drug tests throughout the lifetime of the Order.

14.13 DTTOs were rolled out across Scotland in phases. Between 1999 and 2002 the Order was rolled out to Glasgow, Fife and Aberdeen. In 2002-03 the Order became available in Edinburgh, Renfrewshire/Inverclyde and Tayside. At present the Order is now available to the High Court and all Sheriff courts in Scotland.

Restriction of Liberty

14.14 Restriction of Liberty Orders have been available to High, Sheriff and Stipendiary Courts in Scotland since May 2002. A Restriction of Liberty Order can be imposed for periods of up to one year, and involves restricting an individual to a specified place for up to 12 hours per day and/or from a specified place for up to 24 hours.

14.15 The number of Restriction of Liberty Orders imposed can be sourced from the Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts Statistical Bulletin ( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubCriminalProceedings). The contract for monitoring compliance with Restriction of Liberty Orders is currently held by Serco Limited. Breach data can be requested from the Scottish Government if required.

Throughcare, Voluntary Assistance, Throughcare Addiction Service and Home Circumstance

14.16 Throughcare is the provision of a range of social work and associated services to prisoners and their families from the point of sentence or remand, during the period of imprisonment and following release into the community. Prisoners serving more than 4 years are released with a statutory obligation that they be supervised. Prisoners serving less than 4 years but who are short-term sex offenders (Section 15 of the Management of Offenders Etc. (Scot) Act 2005) or who are subject to an extended sentence or supervised release order are also supervised on release. Throughcare services have a primary objective of public protection, though they are also concerned with assisting prisoners to prepare for release and helping them to resettle into their community within the law.

14.17 Prior to 2004-05, some Local Authorities are known to have included data for Throughcare for serving prisoners and Voluntary Assistance in their figures for Throughcare in the community. 2004-05 was the first year in which authorities were asked to provide separate figures for Throughcare in Custody, Throughcare in the Community and Voluntary Assistance. The figures for 2004-05 cannot therefore be directly compared with those for previous years. There were some further changes to the Throughcare data collection in 2005-06 and the tables are footnoted where these affect comparison with existing trends.

14.18 Voluntary assistance is available to prisoners not subject to statutory throughcare supervision on release but who request such a service while in custody or within 12 months of release. From 2005-06, figures on voluntary assistance include the Throughcare Addiction Service ( TAS).

14.19 The Throughcare Addiction Service ( TAS) commenced on 1 August 2005 and forms part of the voluntary aftercare service, which is often referred to as "Phase 2" of the Enhanced Throughcare Strategy. TAS is delivered by local authority criminal justice social work - or by one of their contracted service providers - who will work with the offender in the 6 week period prior to release from custody through the 6 week period post-release. The TAS worker will offer a more intensive motivational service and attempt to help the offender address their addiction (and associated) difficulties and link them into appropriate services. TAS is not normally available to those prisoners who are serving sentences of less than 31 days unless they are within the following two priority groups: female offenders and young male offenders (aged under 21 years). Information on TAS was collected for the first time via the 2005-06 aggregate return.

Diversion from Prosecution

14.20 Social Work Diversion schemes aim to provide persons accused of minor offences with support and advice in relation to problems associated with their offending. In such cases, prosecution is deferred, subject to successful completion of the scheme.

Bail Information

14.21 Bail Information was collected from local authorities for the first time in 2003-04. Bail information records assistance to Procurators Fiscal and courts through verification of information in respect of cases where bail might otherwise have been opposed or refused.

Sources of information

14.22 Form CJS, an aggregate return covering data on Social Enquiry Reports, Community Service Orders and Probation Orders, was introduced for the year ending 31 March 2000. The return is submitted annually by each local authority. Additional data items have been added to the return over time, including:

Supervised Attendance Orders - added from 2000-01
Throughcare (Statutory Post Release Supervision) - added from 2001-02
Diversion from Prosecution - added from 2001-02
Drug Treatment and Testing Orders - added from 2002-03
Bail information - added from 2003-04
Voluntary Assistance - added from 2004-05
Court Services - added from 2004-05
Throughcare Addiction Service - added from 2005-06

The content and format of the return continues to evolve, to reflect new demands for information and to clarify points of definition in relation to particular data items. Some caution should therefore be exercised when making comparisons over time.

14.23 The total population figures used as denominators in this bulletin are the relevant mid-year estimates for 16-70 year olds, as prepared by the General Register Office for Scotland ( GROS).

14.24 Improvements in data quality are continuing, particularly for figures on breach applications where methodological changes have resulted in better recording of breaches.

14.25 The statistics presented in this bulletin reflect information on social work orders in the financial year April 2009 to March 2010 as known to the Scottish Government at December 2010. They may therefore differ slightly from those published previously, and may be subject to revision in future bulletins in this series.

14.26 Where changes are made to earlier years' figures, this is flagged up at the time of the change but not in future publications. For example, if a change was made to the 2006-07 figures for probation orders at the time of publishing the 2008-09 data, this would be highlighted in the 2008-09 bulletin but would not be mentioned again in any future years' publications.

14.27 The following symbols are used throughout the tables in this bulletin:

- Nil

* < 0.1

n/a Not available

14.28 The percentage figures given in tables and charts have been independently rounded, so they may not always sum to the relevant sub-totals or totals.

14.29 Figures are given precisely in the tables but, in the text, they are generally rounded in the following way:

• 1,000 to less than 100,000 - rounded to the nearest 100.
• 100 to less than 1,000 - rounded to the nearest 10.
• Less than 100 - unrounded