6 Bail supervison

(Tables 1, 6 & 7)

Information updated 11 February 2026.

Key statistics for 2024-25:

• A total of 1,500 bail supervision cases commenced in 2024-25, a rise of 17 per cent from 1,300 in 2023-24. This was the highest in the last ten years.
• Eighty-one per cent of supervised bail cases were for males.
• Around 34 per cent of cases commenced were for people aged between 31 and 40.
• There were 5,800 assessment reports for bail suitability submitted to the courts, two per cent down from 5,900 in 2023-24.

Bail supervision, provided by social work or third sector services, helps individuals comply with bail conditions as an alternative to remand in custody. It offers supervision, monitoring and support for those assessed as needing it. Courts can also impose bail with an electronic monitoring (EM) order, either separately or together with bail supervision.

Chart 3: Supervised bail has increased rapidly over the last four years.

Number of supervised bail cases commenced, 2015-16 to 2024-25, Scotland

In 2022-23, the Scottish Government requested more bail information from local authorities. New data takes time to standardise and is often less consistent than long-term data. The data is now in its third year of collection and it will no longer be considered as statistics in development from 2024-25 onwards, apart from the new question on open supervised cases on 31 March 2025.

A total of 1,500 bail supervision cases commenced in 2024-25, a rise of 17 per cent on the level of 1,300 in 2023-24 and the highest in the last ten years. Apart from in 2020-21, when many courts were closed for long periods due to the COVID-19 pandemic, numbers have risen every year since 2018-19. In 2024-25, around 450 bail supervision cases (29 per cent) involved an electronic monitoring order. This was over triple the number in 2022-23, when the data was first collected, and when only 11 per cent of cases involved electronic monitoring.

There were 5,800 assessment reports submitted to the courts in 2024-25 to assess suitability for bail supervision and/or electronically monitored bail. Two- thirds (70 per cent) were assessed as suitable for supervision. This consisted of 37 per cent suitable for supervision only and 33 per cent for supervision and an electronic monitoring order. A further eight per cent were considered suitable for bail with an electronic monitoring order only, with the remaining 22 per cent assessed as not suitable for bail supervision or electronically monitored bail.

For supervised bail cases successfully completed, these figures may include cases which commenced in a previous year. For example, a supervised case which commenced on 17 February 2024 and which completed successfully on 20 May 2024 would be recorded as a case commenced in year 2023-24 and a case successfully completed in 2024-25. This creates a limitation in reporting as it is not possible to calculate the percentage of cases successfully completed from the data collected. There are similar issues with breaches reported in 2024-25 for cases commenced in 2023-24.

In 2024-25, there were 1,100 bail supervision cases completed successfully, and 140 bail supervision breach reports submitted. For the first time in 2024-25, the number of supervised bail cases open as of 31 March was collected. There were 1,000 cases being progressed on 31 March 2025. This statistic may be likely to be revised as the guidance is improved for next year.