Convictions for domestic abuse offences or offences with domestic abuse aggravators: FOI release

Information requested

Part 1

a) The number of people convicted for rape against their partner made subject to Non-Harassment Orders (in relation to their victim/partner/ex-partner) as part of their sentencing in each year since and including 2018/19 and including 2024/25.

b) The number of people convicted for rape against their partner NOT made subject to Non-Harassment Orders (in relation to their victim/partner/ex-partner) as part of their sentencing in each year since and including 2018/19 and including 2024/25.

Part 2

a) The number of people convicted for domestic abuse offences (including offences with domestic abuse aggravators applied) made subject to Non-Harassment Orders (in relation to their victim/s) as part of their sentencing in each year since and including 2018/19 and including 2024/25.

b) The number of people convicted for domestic abuse offences (including offences with domestic abuse aggravators applied) NOT made subject to Non-Harassment Orders (in relation to their victim/s) as part of their sentencing in each year since and including 2018/19 and including 2024/25.

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption(s) under section(s) s.17 (information not held) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption(s) applies are explained below.

We hold data on convictions issued at charge level in Scottish criminal courts. However, the Scottish Government does not hold the data on the relationship between the offender and the victim required to answer part 1 of your request.

Regarding part 2 of your request, the number of people convicted for domestic abuse offences or offences with domestic abuse aggravators has been extracted from the management information used to publish the Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard (Source: Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard).

The domestic abuse aggravators considered in this analysis were:

CODE	Aggravation	Legislation
D	Domestic Abuse
W	Statutory Aggravation - Domestic Abuse	Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016
Y	Domestic Abuse Statutory Aggravation involving a child	Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018

D aggravator is the domestic abuse used for cases where COPFS consider that it is a domestic abuse case, but the statutory aggravation in the 2016 Act doesn't apply. Courts are under statutory obligation to consider an NHO in cases where the statutory W aggravator is used and the 2018 Act Y aggravator is used, but not cases where the D aggravator is used.

Table 1 shows the total number of people convicted for a domestic abuse offence or another offence with domestic abuse aggravator and, how many of those accused, got a non-harassment order because of any of those offences from financial year 2018-19 to December 2024.

Table 1: Non-Harassment orders for case-accused convicted for domestic abuse offences (including offences with domestic abuse aggravators).

Number of case‐accused1,2,3	Non‐Harassment orders issued
Financial year	No	Yes 4
2018‐2019	9,163	1,109
2019‐2020	8,772	1,741
2020‐2021	6,188	1,918
2021‐2022	7,129	3,192
2022‐2023	7,088	3,535
2023‐2024	6,409	4,033
April 2024‐December 2024	4,850	3,444

1 Number of people convicted of at least one domestic abuse offence or another offence with a domestic abuse aggravator in a case.

2 If there are multiple accused in a case they will be counted separately.

3 If a person appears in more than one case per year then they will be counted more than once.

4 Limited to one per person per case.

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