An Accredited Official Statistics Publication for Scotland.

The Chief Statistician has released part 1 of the 2024-25 justice social work statistics. This includes information on justice social work services, as well as characteristics of the people involved. Part 2 will be published in early 2026.

The number of diversion from prosecution cases commenced rose by seven per cent between 2023-24 and 2024-25 from 3,400 to 3,600. This was the highest level in the last 10 years.

The number of bail supervision cases rose by 17 per cent between 2023-24 and 2024-25 to 1,500. This was the highest in the last 10 years.

There were 1,600 structured deferred sentences imposed in 2024-25. This was 12 per cent more than in 2023-24 and the highest in the last seven years.

There were 1,200 statutory custody-based throughcare cases commenced in 2024-25, 13 per cent up on 1,100 in 2023-24. This was the highest in the last 10 years.

The number of statutory community-based throughcare cases commenced was 1,000 in 2024-25, a 20 per cent increase on 870 in 2023-24. This was the second highest level in the last 10 years.

Background

Full statistical publication

Accredited official statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Justice social work statistics is published in two different parts. The publication split enables earlier reporting of some annual data by about four months.

This part 1 publication provides statistics on the following areas of justice social work:

  • Diversion from prosecution
  • Fiscal work orders
  • Bail supervision
  • Structured deferred sentences
  • Statutory/voluntary throughcare
  • Pre-release reports
  • Home detention curfew assessments

Information is provided for 2024-25 and, where possible, for the years back to 2015-16, in order to show trends over the last ten years. Tables at local authority area level, which have been updated to include 2024-25, have also been published and contain up to 10 years of data.

The trend data supplied in the publication was impacted by the Coronavirus (Covid) pandemic. This means that statistics for most areas of justice social work were impacted in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Caution is advised in comparing data from these two years with other years.

Further statistics on Justice Social Work