Number of bail breaches and impact monitoring by Scottish Government: FOI release

Information requested

1.  The total number of bail breaches recorded in each of the following periods: the 12 months 

• prior to commencement of the Act, and
• the 12 months following commencement of the Act.

2.  A breakdown of these breaches by category, including:

• failure to appear,
• committing further offences while on bail,
• breach of conduct or contact conditions (e.g., contact with victims).

3.  For each period, the number of bail breaches involving individuals charged with:

• violent offences,
• sexual offences, or
• domestic abuse-related offences.

4.  The number of individuals who were re-bailed after being arrested for a bail breach, for each of the two periods listed above.

5.  Any SG-held data or monitoring reports assessing the early impact of the Act on:

• breach rates,
• enforcement pressures on Police Scotland, or
• bail supervision caseloads.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

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. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.

1. The Scottish Government does not hold information on the total number of bail breaches. However, you may wish to contact the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service or Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service at FOI@copfs.gov.uk or foi@scotcourts.gov.uk, respectively, who may be able to help you.

2. Although the Scottish Government do not hold information on all bail breaches, we do hold information on the number of crimes recorded by the police in relation to bail breaches, this information is provided below. Note Part 1 of the Act was fully commenced on 14 May 2025. As the data we hold on recorded crime is by quarter, we have therefore provided data for year ending March 2025. We are unable to provide 12 months’ worth of data post commencement as this has not yet passed.

Recorded crime in Scotland, bail related crimes

	Year ending March 2025
Not appearing for trial following bail	0
Bail offences other than absconding/re-offending	12,894

Source: Recorded Crime in Scotland, year ending March 2025 Accredited Statistics

Crimes of Not appearing for trial following bail relate to Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, Section 27(1)(a) and Bail offences other than absconding/re-offending relate to Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, Section 27(1)(b).

Additionally, Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics provide data on people prosecuted and convicted in Scottish courts by main charge (where the main charge is the one that conferred the most severe penalty). This data includes convictions which carry a statutory bail aggravation (under Section 27(1)(b) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995) as well as prosecutions with a main charge of a bail-related offence. Bail-related offences include breach of bail conditions and failure to appear in court. No information is held on the specific bail condition breached. Bail-related offences are shown in Table 15 of the bulletin and data on bail aggravations by offence convicted are included as part of the additional supporting table on bail. The most recently available data is for the year ending March 2024, therefore the most recent data does not cover the periods you are interested in.

In addition, as this data is based on when a case concluded in court it would not be possible to provide the split requested. This is because offences could not be safely assigned to a specific 12- month period, nor does this data include the date(s) on which any offence(s) occurred which would allow such a breakdown.

3. The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Data is not linked in such a way that we can identify a bail offence prosecution with the original prosecution a person was bailed for (and from which the bail offence rose). However, you may wish to contact the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service or Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service at FOI@copfs.gov.uk or foi@scotcourts.gov.uk, respectively, who may be able to help you.

4. The Scottish Government does not hold this information. However, you may wish to contact the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service or Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service at FOI@copfs.gov.uk or foi@scotcourts.gov.uk, respectively, who may be able to help you.

5. The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.