Unpaid work hours imposed

Key Point: There has been a decrease of 11% in the number of CPOs issued in the first 11 months of 2025-26, compared to this period in 2024-25. The number of unpaid work hours imposed for the first 11 months of 2025-26 is estimated to be in the range of 1.24 million and 1.32 million. The figures for 2025-26 are more similar to 2023-24.

The number of unpaid work hours imposed by Scottish courts feeds into the volume of hours that need to be progressed. The previous section showed the rates of unpaid work requirements that are finished. This section focuses instead on the flow of new unpaid work hours entering the system.

Chart 1 below shows data from two different data sources. The first is Justice Social Work Statistics which displays the number of hours imposed per month from April 2019 to March 2025. Management information from April 2025 to September 2025 is derived from the Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard. The information from the dashboard should be seen as providing a broadly indicative estimate rather than a precise measure of activity. To indicate the change in the chart due to the different data source, these six dates are shown as a lighter dotted line.

Chart 1: There was a large drop in unpaid work hours imposed in April 2020 when the first national lockdown occurred

Number of unpaid work hours imposed, Scotland, April 2019 to September 2025

Since 2020‑21, unpaid work hours imposed have increased. In 2024‑25, 16,475 CPOs were imposed with 1.56 million unpaid work hours—slightly fewer CPOs than in 2019‑20 (16,814) before the COVID-19 pandemic but with similar unpaid work hours imposed.

Throughout the year the number of hours imposed varies month to month. Pre-pandemic, the number of hours imposed was generally higher in May and October, with the lowest during December. This pattern was not the same from 2020-21 due to the disruption caused to the courts by the pandemic (this is shown in Chart 1).

The estimated number of hours imposed from April to September 2025 is around 701,000. This is decrease of 12% from this time period in 2024. (The 2024-25 estimates are likely to increase slightly (approximately by 4%) when this data is replaced by the justice social work statistics for 2025-26 (see Annex A).)

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) publish Monthly Criminal Management Information, which includes the number of CPOs issued. At the time of this publication the data to February 2026 was available. This provides an indication of the trend for the missing months from chart 1 i.e. October 2025 to February 2026 (as shown in Chart 2).

Chart 2: The number of CPOs imposed in 2025-26 is lower than 2024-25.

Number of Community Payback Orders imposed in Scotland, April 2024 to February 2026

Note: 2025-26 from SCTS monthly data and 2024-25 from Justice Social Work statistics

Chart 2 shows that there has been less CPOs imposed in 2025-26, the highest being in October 2025 at 1,398, and the lowest in January 2026 at 1,153. There has been a decrease of 11% in the number of CPOs issued in the first 11 months of 2025-26, compared to this period in 2024-25.

From the monthly data, it is not possible to identify which CPOs include an unpaid work requirement. In 2024‑25, 69% of CPOs had an unpaid work requirement. To estimate unpaid work hours imposed, the total number of CPOs each month is combined with the range of average unpaid work hours per CPO. Based on data from April 2024 to September 2025, this gives a lower average of 88 hours and an upper average of 102 hours per CPO. These averages are then applied to estimate unpaid work hours for the missing period from October 2025 to February 2026, resulting in an estimated range of 536,600 to 618,600 hours, (See Annex A on information in this estimate).

For the first 11 months of 2025-26, the estimated range of unpaid work hours imposed lies between 1,237,600 and 1,319,700. The decrease in the number of unpaid work hours for the first 11 months of 2025-26 is in the range of 8% to 13%, compared to the same time period in 2024-25.

The number of unpaid work hours imposed in 2024-25 was 1.56 million the highest since 2017-18. By contrast, the data for 2025-26 is more similar to 2023-24. With an estimated decrease of at least 8% in unpaid work hours imposed in the first 11 months of 2025‑26, it is hoped that the number of unpaid work hours to be progressed will stabilise or decrease as more of the 2024-25 unpaid work requirements are completed in their second year.