SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE

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Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts, 1998

Annex

12. Notes on Statistics Used in this Bulletin

1. The unit of analysis - except in section 10 - is the person or company proceeded against. Persons are counted once for each occasion on which they are proceeded against. If more than one proceeding is disposed of on the same day each occasion will be counted separately. The statistics are therefore not directly comparable with statistics on direct sentenced receptions to penal establishments (see note 4) or with social work authorities' statistics on community service orders. Companies constitute less than 1 per cent of the total and references to "persons" include companies, unless otherwise stated.
2. Where a person is proceeded against for more than one crime or offence, only the main charge is counted. The main charge is the one receiving the severest penalty if one or more charges are proved. If more than one charge receives the same (or a combined) penalty, then the main charge is the one judged by the police (who provide the information) to be the most serious. If no charge is proved then the one reaching the furthest stage in proceedings is the main one. A person with a charge proved is defined to be one who had a plea of "guilty" accepted, or who was proved guilty of at least one charge as a result of a trial. Generally only the initial outcome is included in the court proceedings statistics, so that, for example, a person fined is regarded as fined even if he or she subsequently goes to prison in default of payment. (The exception to this recording policy is that proceedings for breach of community service, probation, etc. are now recorded, see note 11.) Similarly, where possible, no account is taken of the outcome of appeals; the exception being for those crimes where an appeal is determined prior to publication and the conviction is quashed. Interim decisions such as deferral of sentence are also excluded.
3. The year recorded for each person in the statistics is the year in which the person's case is disposed of. So if a person pleads to and is convicted for a charge in 1997 but is not sentenced until 1998 all events are recorded as occurring in 1998. The age of each person is calculated as the age at the time that sentence was passed.
4. Figures for custodial sentences do not agree with those published in the statistical bulletin "Prisons Statistics Scotland" because the figures presented here count sentences of courts while those in the prisons statistical bulletin count receptions to penal establishments. Direct sentenced receptions to penal establishments (i.e. excluding fine defaulters) are counted differently from custodial disposals in the court proceedings statistics for 2 main reasons. Firstly, in the case of backdated sentences if, after backdating, it is found that the custodial sentence has expired, neither the warrant nor the person sentenced will be taken to prison and thus a reception will not be counted though the sentence will be included in the court statistics. Secondly, if a person is given one or more custodial sentences on each of 2 separate sets of charges from the same court on the same day, this will be counted as 2 custodial sentences in the court statistics but only one direct sentenced reception.
5. The number of prosecutions for motor vehicle offences (chiefly speeding and vehicle defect offences) has been affected by the introduction of 3 alternatives to prosecutions: the conditional offer of a fixed penalty to the accused by the procurator fiscal (introduced on 1 July 1983); the vehicle defect rectification scheme whereby offenders may sometimes avoid prosecution if they restore their vehicle to road worthiness (introduced on 1 May 1984); and the conditional offer of a fixed penalty to the accused by the police (introduced on 1 April 1993).
6. Prosecutions for some minor offences other than motor vehicle offences have been affected by the introduction of a fixed penalty scheme introduced on 1 January 1988. Some 80 per cent of offers of these "fiscal fines" are accepted; most of the rest are prosecuted.
7. Starting in 1988, there was a major change in the way in which some of the information on court proceedings is collected from the police. For all crimes and some offences, information on court proceedings now comes from the police operational computer at the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO). This information is not designed for statistical purposes, and while it is wherever possible converted to the existing series, some discontinuities are inevitable. Notes 8 to 12 below describe those which are known to have occurred in data for this bulletin. Details of prosecutions for most motor vehicle offences and minor statutory and common law offences are sent by the police on monthly statistical returns to the Scottish Executive, and are unaffected by the change. The police constantly update the SCRO database using information they receive from court sheets on the outcome of any court proceedings. Occasionally there will be a pending case on SCRO which is not updated until some time after the case has been disposed of. This means that this bulletin contains details of court proceedings as currently recorded by the police, and that figures are subject to revision.
8. Some inconsistencies in the data cannot currently be corrected. The main examples are persons whose gender has not been recorded or whose age is unknown. Some persons aged less than 16 have been recorded as receiving community service orders. This is due to the age returned from SCRO being based on the original date of birth that SCRO recorded for an accused. This date of birth may well differ from the date of birth recorded on the court sheet.
9. Another type of discontinuity resulting from the change in 1988 relates to the classification of crimes and offences. The police record very detailed information on statutory offences but this does not always correspond exactly to the SEJD classification. The most important example in numerical terms is an offence under Section 41(1)(a) of the Police (Scotland) Act 1967. This offence relates to "any person who assaults, resists, obstructs, molests or hinders a constable..". The SEJD classification divides this into 3 categories - resisting arrest, serious assault and simple assault, but this distinction is not made by the courts. The majority of such cases are thought to have been classed as simple assault, and all the offences under this subsection have been so classified from 1988 onwards. It is estimated that this reduces the figures of resisting arrest (which is counted as a crime against public justice in the "other crimes" category) by some 1,700 for Scotland.
10. The same problem arises in relation to a number of other statutes but at the level of aggregation used in the bulletin there is often no change to the final category. The numbers involved in cases where there is a change in the final category are thought to be very small.
11. From 1988, breaches of probation and community service orders are included in Group 6 (Miscellaneous offences). Most (about 1,000 per annum) of these charges had previously been excluded from the court proceedings statistics; the remainder (about 400 per annum) would have been included in the category of the original offence for which the order was made (mainly crimes of dishonesty).
12. The Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1995 led to a change in the way in which offending while on bail is treated in the court proceedings statistics. Offenders convicted of offending while subject to a bail order issued prior to 1 April 1996 will, if the main result related to the bail offence, have been classified to the main offence category "crimes against public justice". Where the bail order was issued after 1 April 1996, the main offence will be the offence committed while on bail as the aggravation applies to that offence and is not now separately categorised. Due to lags in the system, the figures for 1998 include a small number of cases involving a charge proved under the old bail regime. While there is no change to the total number of persons with a charge proved, the effect of the 1995 legislation was to decrease the number of persons with a main offence classified in the "crimes against public justice" category with consequent rises in the figures for other categories. In the recorded crime statistics given in Table 1, all crimes of "offending while on bail" have been excluded.
13. Figures for sentence lengths imposed include any element imposed for bail aggravation under Section 27(1)(b) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (where the offender was on a bail order issued after 31 March 1996 at the time the offence was committed), and sentences imposed under Section 16 of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993 (where the offender committed an offence following release from custody and prior to the end of the previous sentence period imposed).
14. Information on prosecutions originating from sources other than the police were not provided by Grampian Police in 1990 or 1991. The shortfall has reduced the number of prosecutions for Group 6 offences (mainly Wireless Telegraphy Act cases), most of which would have resulted in fines.
15. A very few minor amendments have been made in this bulletin to previously published figures in order to reflect a small number of modifications to the mapping of the detailed charge information held on SCRO to the SEJD classification of crimes and offences. The only amendments of any significance relate to a net switch, from the "other miscellaneous offences" category to fraud, of around 850 persons proceeded against in the data for 1997. Further details on these amendments can be obtained from the enquiry point given at the end of this bulletin.
16. The following symbols are used throughout the tables in this bulletin:

Penalties available to the courts

17. The measures available to a court in sentencing a person with a charge proved depend on whether the accused is an adult (21 or over), a young offender (aged 16 but less than 21) or a child (under 16 or under 18 with a current supervisory requirement from a children's hearing) and on whether the court is satisfied on the evidence of 2 medical practitioners that he is suffering from mental disorder. The measures available in 1998 included:

1. Order an absolute discharge (with no conviction recorded in summary procedure*) or, following a deferral of sentence, make no order.

2. Admonish the offender or make an order to find caution.

3. Impose a probation order with or without various conditions including a requirement to do unpaid work (with no conviction recorded in summary procedure*).

4. Remit the disposal of a child to a children's hearing.

5. Impose a community service order on an adult or young offender requiring him to undertake unpaid work (this penalty was introduced in 1979 and is not available to every court).

6. Fine the offender.

7. Impose a compensation order requiring the offender to compensate the victim of his crime for any resulting injury, loss or damage (introduced on 1 April 1981).

8. Make a guardianship order if the accused is suffering from mental disorder (with no conviction recorded in summary procedure*).

9. Imprison the offender (adults only) or, if the offender has been released from prison on licence following a previous conviction, recall him to prison.

10. a. Sentence a young offender to a young offenders institution (YOI) for a period not greater than that of imprisonment which the court could have imposed on an adult.

b. Recall to YOI an offender who is under supervision following detention in a YOI for a previous offence.

c. Sentence a young offender under 18 years of age convicted of murder to detention for an indeterminate period.

The effect of these sentences is normally detention or further detention in a young offenders institution.

11. Sentence a child to a specified period of detention in a place and on such conditions as Scottish Ministers may direct.

12. Make a hospital order if the accused is suffering from mental disorder (with no conviction recorded in summary procedure) or order the accused to be detained in hospital if he is found to be insane and unfit for trial or insane at the time of the offence.

13. Supervised attendance orders in place of fines for 16 and 17 year olds: a pilot scheme covering the provisions of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 has been operating in a small number of courts.

14. Restriction of liberty orders: a community sentence introduced by Section 5 of the Crime and Punishment (Scotland) Act 1995 and available on a pilot basis to three sheriff courts since August 1998.

* References in this bulletin to "convictions" should be taken to include all persons with a charge proved, ie including these instances where no conviction is recorded in summary procedure.

18. The court can impose more than one penalty in appropriate cases. For example, a fine (797 cases in 1998) or an order to find caution (19 cases in 1998) was imposed in addition to a more severe penalty. Equipment used in the commission of a crime or offence may also be forfeited. However, the main additional punishments are generally disqualification from holding or obtaining a driving licence and the endorsement of a driving licence. The main charge in such cases is almost always either a motor vehicle offence or the theft of a motor vehicle.

 

Classification of Crimes and Offences

19. Contraventions of the law are divided into crimes and offences, crimes generally being the more serious. The classification of crimes and offences used by the Scottish Executive Justice Department for criminal statistics contains about 320 codes. These are grouped in this bulletin as follows.

20. This bulletin presents only a selection of the statistics available from the SEJD court proceedings database. Further information on the range of additional analysis available can be obtained by contacting the enquiry point given at the end of this bulletin.

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