4. Justice social work reports (JSWRs)

4.1 Reports submitted

(Tables 1 to 4)

Key statistics for 2024-25:  

• There were 29,600 JSWRs submitted (including supplementary reports) in 2024-25. This was six per cent higher than the level of 27,900 in 2023-24 and was the highest since 2016-17.
• Full JSWRs followed a similar pattern, rising by seven per cent in the last year to reach the highest level in the last ten years.
• Eighty-five per cent of full JSWRs in 2024-25 were for males.
• Thirty-three per cent of full JSWRs were for people aged 31-40 years old.
• Of those known, 54 per cent were reported as being unemployed.

Justice social work reports (JSWRs) provide the court with a social worker’s professional assessment. The reports give details of relevant interventions and support sentencing decisions.

For clarity in this publication, we refer to the two types of reports using the statistical categories “full JSWRs” and “supplementary JSWRs”. Supplementary reports exclude letters sent to courts instead of reports.

The total number of JSWRs submitted (including supplementary JSWRs) fell to 16,900 in 2020-21. Numbers have subsequently risen in each of the next four years, reaching 29,600 in 2024-25. This is higher than pre-pandemic levels and the highest since 2016-17.

The number of full JSWRs also fell sharply between 2019-20 and 2020-21. Numbers then rose in both 2021-22 and 2022-23, before rising further, by four per cent in 2023-24 and a further seven per cent, to 27,400, in 2024-25.

The proportion of JSWRs that were supplementary in 2024-25 was eight per cent, the second lowest proportion in the last ten years.

Chart 1: Justice social work report submissions remained relatively stable from 2015-16 to 2019-20, declined during the pandemic, and have increased annually since.

Number of JSWRs submitted, Scotland, 2015-16 to 2024-25

Just over two-thirds of local authority areas showed an increase in JSWRs submitted between 2023-24 and 2024-25. Further information is in the additional datasets which are published alongside this publication.

4.2  Preferred sentencing options and outcomes for justice social work reports

(Tables 3 & 4)

Key statistics for 2024-25:

• A community payback order (CPO) was recommended as a sentence in 45 per cent of justice social work reports and custody was recommended in seven per cent of reports.
• A CPO was the main outcome from 42 per cent of justice social work reports submitted in 2024-25, and custody was the main outcome in 14 per cent of reports.

The statistics in this section of the report relate to full JSWRs. Information on preferred options and main outcomes are not collected for supplementary JSWRs.

Forty-four per cent of full JSWRs in 2024-25 recommended the use of a CPO as a sentencing option. Twenty per cent recommended a CPO with supervision but no unpaid work, while 12 per cent recommended unpaid work but no supervision and 13 per cent recommended both unpaid work and supervision. The proportion for unpaid work but no supervision fell over the period 2015-16 to 2020-21 but has been slightly higher over the last three years. This reflects the fact that the proportion of CPOs being issued with unpaid work was falling for many years but has risen slightly in recent years.

In addition, 14 per cent of reports recommended either a structured deferred sentence or a deferred sentence of three months or more. A further six per cent suggested a monetary penalty. Custody was the preferred option in seven per cent of reports. Fifteen per cent suggested some other form of sentence (including a restriction of liberty order or deferment for a drug treatment and testing order assessment). Thirteen per cent of JSWRs gave no preferred sentencing option.

After the recommendations in JSWRs were considered as part of court procedures, a CPO was given as the main outcome for 42 per cent of reports in 2024-25. Ten per cent of reports resulted in a CPO with unpaid work but no supervision, and 12 per cent resulted in an order with supervision but no unpaid work. In 20 per cent of cases, the main outcome was a CPO with both supervision and unpaid work.

There were 12,300 JSWRs where CPOs were recommended as the preferred option and 7,900 (64 per cent) of these received a CPO as the main outcome. Among the 15,000 JSWRs where the preferred option was not a CPO, 3,600 (24 per cent) received a CPO for the main outcome.

The numbers for JSWR main outcomes in 2024-25 do not collate to the number of CPOs imposed in that year. This is due to the time lag between the submission of the report and resolution of the criminal proceedings, as well as the fact that not all types of CPO require the production of a JSWR. For example, where a CPO consists only of an unpaid work requirement of 100 hours or less, a JSWR is not required.

The main outcome from JSWRs submitted in 2024-25 was a community payback order for 42 per cent of reports and was custody for 14 per cent of reports. The largest other main outcome categories in 2024-25 were a deferred sentence, a restriction of liberty order and a monetary penalty (11, seven and six per cent of the total respectively).