Caledonian System data: FOI release

Information requested

How many men, as part of sentencing for a Domestic Abuse offence, or other offence with a Domestic Abuse aggravator, were ordered to work the Caledonian System?

How many of these men completed their sentence with the system? Please break the response down by local authority area, collecting data from 2014 to 2025.

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested, and I have included a narrative explanation of what details cannot be provided. The two tables contained within this answer come from different sources and are not therefore comparable with one another.

Number of Community Payback Orders (CPO) imposed on males with a programme requirement where the programme was Caledonian.

Local authority area	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
SCOTLAND	261	232	220	260	238	273	624	434	601	591	582
Aberdeen City	40	43	41	42	45	41	41	49	64	60	39
Aberdeenshire	13	9	16	20	20	18	36	35	29	34	17
Angus	c	0	0	0	0	0	c	0	0	c	0
Argyll & Bute	0	0	0	0	0	c	0	0	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	14	11	10	15	8	12	11	13	18	8	14
Dumfries & Galloway	17	15	27	19	12	33	43	34	66	31	34
Dundee City	0	0	0	0	0	0	22	9	9	11	40
East Ayrshire	22	6	9	21	17	28	c	15	32	36	33
East Lothian	c	9	9	6	7	7	9	10	16	11	c
Edinburgh, City of	49	52	50	43	36	36	46	19	32	38	38
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0	c	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Falkirk	29	24	15	22	24	23	26	15	16	49	53
Fife	0	c	9	10	0	9	52	37	41	48	44
Glasgow City	0	0	c	0	c	5	157	68	102	114	93
Highland	0	0	c	0	0	c	22	15	23	25	30
Inverclyde	0	c	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Midlothian	13	9	4	8	c	6	4	4	6	8	9
Moray	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	27	26	9	36	31	27	27	11	26	26	27
Perth & Kinross	c	c	0	0	0	0	12	15	11	10	13
Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	c	c
Scottish Borders	10	10	7	12	11	7	8	7	15	15	14
South Ayrshire	8	c	6	3	13	13	28	17	29	30	31
South Lanarkshire	0	0	0	0	0	c	65	51	45	29	34
Stirling	12	8	5	3	7	4	10	7	21	c	7
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7

Source: Justice social work datasets 2013-14 to 2023-24

Notes:

[1] This data does not contain information on the type of crime committed and whether there is a domestic abuse aggravator.
[2] This data source does not have any information on whether the Caledonian programme was completed successfully.
[3] The data only covers Caledonian programmes which have been issued as part of community payback orders.
[c] in the table refers to numbers which are low and are therefore not provided for data confidentiality purposes.

Number of men completed their Programmed work in between 2019 and 2025.

Local authority area	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25
SCOTLAIND	43	8'6	11 82	142	205	195
Aberdeen City	7	16	23	30	39	37
Aberdeenshire	0	5	8	11	7	3
City of Edinburgh	9	11	7	6	17	15
Clackmannanshire	0	1	1	5	11	7
Dumfries & Galloway	12	24	21	17	29	18
Dundee City	NA	0	6	1	0	3
East Ayrshire	0	8	7	3	4	13
East Lothian	1	0	1	1	0	0
Falkirk	6	4	8	7	11	13
Fife	NA	2	29	19	26	26
Glasgow City	NA	2	30	15	5	15
Highland	NA	0	4	9	11	12
Midlothian	2	0	0	0	3	5
Moray	NA	NA	NA	NA	N1  A	NA
North Ayrshire	2	4	8	0	14	6
Perth & Kinross	NA	0	6	7	5	3
Scottish Borders	2	4	2	3	7	6
South Ayrshire	0	2	5	2	7	8
South Lanarkshire	NA	1	12	7	g	5
Stirling	2	2	4	1	6	4
West Dunbartonshire	NA	NA	NA	NA	N1  A	NA

Source: Community Justice Scotland datasets 2019-20 to 2024-25

Notes:

[1] West Dunbartonshire and Moray have started delivering the programme in 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 respectively.
[2] Dundee City, Fife, Glasgow City, Highland, Perth and Kinross and South Lanarkshire have started delivering the programme in 2019/2020.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. However, you may wish to contact Parole Scotland whose contact details can be found at https://scottishparoleboard.scot who may be able to help you. The reasons why we do not have the information are set out in further detail below.

Reasons for not providing information

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested

I hereby provide you with formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. We do not have the information you have asked for because it is not all centrally held by the Scottish Government. What we have provided here is the number of Community Payback Order (CPO) imposed on males with a programme requirement where the programme was Caledonian. This is provided for the full years held, so the last full year is 2023-24. The information on where Caledonian attendance was required as part of a condition of a release licence, parole or non-parole, is not held by the Scottish Government, but may be held by Parole Scotland.

We are unable to provide you with all the information requested in relation to Programme completion. The reasons for that area set out below. There is a data gap in the completion figures between 2014-2019. A 2016 evaluation highlighted issues in data collection. In response a new database was developed and was officially launched in 2019. Consequently, there is a gap in consistent data collection, exacerbated by the fact that different areas began using the new system at different times. Therefore, the completion figures are presented from 2019-20 onwards as there is slightly higher confidence in that data.

However, data was then significantly impacted in response to the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020/21). While one-to-one work generally continued, many individuals faced challenges in completing the programme, which may have impacted completion rates. Therefore the available completions data have to be treated with extreme caution as to accuracy and the Scottish Government do not have a high level of confidence overall in relation to this data set.

Improvement actions are underway to automate data collection through the LS/CMI system, and it is expected those changes will be rolled out later this year. All data need to be considered in the context of roll out taking place over the period. In 2019, the programme expanded further, with six additional areas beginning delivery. Since the Caledonian Programme spans two years, there will also be a lag between order imposed and completion data. The Scottish Government are reliant on returns from local areas in compiling this data.

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