Community Payback Orders – Unpaid work or Other Activity Requirements – February 2026
An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland
The Chief Statistician has released figures on Community Payback Orders (CPOs) unpaid work or other activity requirements today.
The publication covers the changes in rates of progression during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, information on the number of hours imposed by the courts for this requirement and the number of unpaid work hours to be progressed.
- In 2024-25, there were 16,500 CPOs imposed by the courts, which included 1.56 million unpaid work hours imposed as part of unpaid work requirements.
- There has been a decrease of 11% in the number of CPOs issued in the first 11 months of 2025-26 (13,400), compared to this period in 2024-25 (15,000). In the first 11 months of 2025-26, the estimated range of unpaid work hours being imposed was between 1.24 and 1.36 million.
- In February 2026, it is estimated that there were 871,600 unpaid work hours to be progressed. This was an increase of 1% from February 2025.
Background
Full publication is available on Scottish Government website.
Official statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.
This information relates to only one of the 10 requirements that can be imposed for Community Payback Orders (CPOs). The unpaid work or other activity requirement (abbreviated to unpaid work) is one of the most common to be imposed. Unpaid work requirements are continuously being imposed, and, at the same time, existing requirements are being completed. Completing unpaid work requirements takes time and, as a result, there will always be hours in the system while requirements are being progressed.
The data for this publication comes from four different data sources. Therefore, estimates are used to allow reporting on the same time-frame. Changes to the recent unpaid work hours to be progressed should be treated with caution due to seasonal fluctuation. It is better to look at the overall annual trend than focus on the changes in the last two quarters.