Male conviction data: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for available data on cases where the main penalty imposed was an extended sentence (under the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995) for males in Scotland. Please provide a breakdown, where held, by:

• age group (preferably 5-year bands, or nearest available)
• total sentence length, and where separately recorded:
• custodial term
• extension period

For each financial year from 2012/13 to the most recent year available.

To minimise cost, I am content to receive:

• the closest available aggregated data already held or used in published statistics
• broader age bands or sentence length groupings if required

Please provide the data in Excel or CSV format where possible.

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested in the format (MS Excel) you asked for.

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 we don't have this information are explained below.

Information on sentencing in Scottish criminal courts are published as Criminal Proceedings in Scotland and the Criminal Disposals Dashboard. These are distinct and unlinked data sets, produced from different sources in different ways.

Criminal Proceedings in Scotland data are accredited official statistics and are published annually as a bulletin covering a 10-year period. The most recent publication covers the ten years from 2014-2015 to 2023-2024. Data are drawn from Police Scotland's Criminal History System and count people by main charge. The main charge is the one that conferred the most severe penalty. Although this includes extended sentences, only the length of the custodial part is recorded in these statistics.

The Scottish Government also publishes a Criminal Disposals Dashboard. This dataset is management information rather than accredited official statistics and is provided by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) from their operational database. The disposals dataset only covers financial years from 2017–2018 onwards and primarily counts disposals issued in court rather than people. However, to answer this question, we have extracted from the dataset the number of accused persons who received extended sentences as their main penalty. For extended sentences this data includes both the custodial and supervision periods.

To be as helpful as possible we therefore provide two sets of data in the attached spreadsheet.

Extended sentences by custodial period lengths for the financial years 2012-2013 to 2016-2017 are provided from Criminal Proceedings in Scotland data. Extended sentences by custodial and supervision period lengths for the financial years 2017-2018 to 2025-2026 are provided from the Criminal Disposals Dashboard.

Note that the figures from these sources are not directly comparable.

As per your request data are provided by five-year age bands. For both data sets the age of convicted people is their age at sentencing and may be older than the age(s) they were when any offence(s) were committed.

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.

FOI 202600515250 - Information Released - Spreadsheet

File type

Excel document

File size

59.2 kB