Criminal proceedings statistics: FOI release

Information requested

Please provide the number of cases concluded in financial year 2023–24 for each of the four types of court - Justice of the Peace Court, Sheriff Court (Summary Procedure), Sheriff Court (Solemn Procedure), High Court of Judiciary (excluding appeals) , and please provide:

Number of cases which resulted in a guilty plea in each of the court types.

In cases heard at trial, the verdict outcome: guilty, not guilty, and not proven.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in the table below.

Number of people proceeded against in Scottish courts, by court type and outcome, 2023–24.

High court	Deserted simpliciter  Plea Not Guilty accepted Not guilty Not proven Convicted (Guilty)	6 62 232 155 796
Sheriff solemn	Deserted simpliciter	119
	Plea Not Guilty accepted	689
	Not guilty	506
	Not proven	254
	Convicted (Guilty)	6,096
Sheriff summary	Deserted simpliciter	1,168
	Plea Not Guilty accepted	2,473
	Not guilty	1,979
	Not proven	440
	Convicted (Guilty)	44,891
Justice of the Peace	Deserted simpliciter	413
	Plea Not Guilty accepted	764
	Not guilty	455
	Not proven	23
	Convicted (Guilty)	11,703

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database

While we aim to provide information wherever possible, the Scottish Government does not hold all of the information requested. The Criminal Proceedings database does not record the number of guilty pleas, as a guilty plea is not a verdict or final outcome of court proceeding. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

We have been in touch with the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS), who have advised that they are unable to provide this information. A single court case or set of proceedings may involve multiple accused and multiple charges, each of which can result in different outcomes. As a result, it is not possible to assign a single verdict or outcome to a case using the available data. You may wish to contact SCTS at foi@scotcourts.gov.uk for further information; however, please note that some information may be exempt from disclosure under the court records exemption.

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