Diversions from prosecution reach record high

The criminal justice social work statistics for 2020-21 also show that there were 8,200 community payback orders initiated in 2020-21, a fall of 51 per cent from 16,800 in 2019-20.

For the first time in 2020-21, a higher proportion of community payback orders were issued with offender supervision requirements than were issued with unpaid work or other activity requirements.

The number of diversion from prosecution cases commenced rose for the third year in a row, by 12 per cent between 2019-20 and 2020-21 to a historic high of 2,200.

The number of drug treatment and testing orders commenced fell by 56 per cent between 2019-20 and 2020-21 to 230. Numbers of fiscal work orders commenced continued to decline in 2020-21, from the peak of 1,030 in 2017-18, to 120 in 2020-21.

Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary, Jamie Greene MSP, said: “These figures lay bare the failings at the heart of the SNP’s soft-touch justice approach. There are record numbers of people being diverted from prosecution in Scotland, meaning these criminals are essentially getting away with their crimes and escaping punishment.

“Yet even when offenders are given community sentences, they’re easier to complete than ever with nearly half not containing any element of unpaid work. Furthermore, the SNP shamelessly wrote off hundreds of thousands of hours of uncompleted unpaid work back in January 2021.”