Civil justice statistics in Scotland: 2011-2012

12. Notes on Statistics Used

12.1 For 2008-09, Court of Session data on cases initiated were collected electronically but data on disposals were recorded manually. For 2009-10 onwards all of the Court of Session data published here were collected electronically (with the exception of adoptions and adoption freeing orders, which continue to be recorded manually due to the confidential nature of these cases). Given the thorough quality assurance that was carried out on the data each month, it is unlikely that the change in data collection methods will have a significant impact on the ability to compare data between the three years. However, changes were made to the case types and final disposals recorded and this will affect the ability to compare some of the more detailed data.

12.2 All of the sheriff courts data published here were extracted electronically with the exception of data on adoptions, permanence orders with authority to adopt, commissary and appeals, which were based on manual returns from the courts.

12.3 The 2011-mid-year population estimates used to calculate the number of cases per 1,000 or per 10,000 population in some of the tables are given in Table 25 below.

Table 25: 2011 mid-year population estimates by sheriffdom

Source: National Records of Scotland

12.4 The following symbols have been used in the publication:

12.5 Statistics from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey and mid-year population estimates are National Statistics. Legal Aid statistics are not Official Statistics. All other tables in this publication are Official Statistics.

12.6 This publication has been produced by the Government Statistical Service and meets the standard required of all Official Statistics publications. Following the Review of Civil Judicial Statistics, and with improved data collection and checking procedures fully implemented, the publication will in due course aim to achieve National Statistics status.