Restitution Fund: annual report 2025 to 2026

1. Introduction

1.1 The Restitution Fund was introduced by the Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2014. The Act made provisions to introduce a new financial penalty of a restitution order to be available to courts for those convicted of assault on police officers or police staff, and other specified persons (under section 90(1) of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012).

1.2 The monies received from restitution orders which is paid into the Restitution Fund, will then be used to provide support services for victims of such assault in Scotland. Support services can be any type of service or treatment which is intended to benefit the physical or mental health and wellbeing of police officers, staff and anyone assisting them in the course of their duties in Scotland.

1.3 The monies are collected from offenders by the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service in the same way as it collects fines and compensation orders. An order can be collected from an offender over an agreed timescale (paid in instalments), on the basis of what they can afford. The funding collected is then paid into the Scottish Consolidated Fund and transferred to the Restitution Fund, which is administered by the Scottish Ministers.

1.4 Under The Restitution Fund (Scotland) Order 2025, the Scottish Ministers must keep records of:

• every payment made into the Fund
• every payment made out of the Fund
• the outlays incurred in administering the Fund which have been paid to the Scottish Ministers under section 253B(4) of the 1995 Act
• the balance of the Fund

1.5 The Scottish Ministers must also prepare and publish a report on the administration of the Fund. Whilst this annual report is for the period between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026 it provides information on the total number of restitution orders, amounts imposed and total funding received into the Restitution Fund since 2021.