6. Bail supervision

(Tables 1, 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b)

Key statistics for 2025-26:

• The number of bail supervision cases rose by 7% between 2024-25 and 2025-26 to 1,629. This was the highest level in the last ten years.
• 84% of supervised bail cases were for males.
• Around 35% of cases commenced were for people aged between 31 and 40.
• There were 7,502 assessment reports for bail suitability submitted to the courts, 30% increase from 5,781 in 2024-25.

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 over the last five years.

Number of supervised bail cases commenced, 2016-17 to 2025-26, Scotland

A total of 1,629 bail supervision cases commenced in 2025-26, a rise of 7% from 1,525 in 2024-25 and the highest level 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 2017-18. In 2025-26, around 525 bail supervision cases (32%) involved an electronic monitoring order. This was four times the number in 2022-23 (125), when the data was first collected.

There were 7,502 assessment reports submitted to the courts in 2025-26 to assess suitability for bail supervision and/or electronically monitored bail. These recommend that 30% were suitable for supervision only and 34% for supervision and an electronic monitoring order. A further 9% were considered suitable for bail with an electronic monitoring order only, with the remaining 27% 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 the last two years. For example, a supervised case which commenced on 17 February 2025 and which completed successfully on 20 May 2026 would be recorded as a case commenced in year 2024-25 and a case successfully completed in 2025-26. 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 2025-26 but the supervised case remained open as 31 March 2026, awaiting decision from the courts.

In 2025-26, there were 1,042 bail supervision cases completed successfully, and 228 bail supervision breach reports submitted. For the second time in 2025-26, the number of supervised bail cases open as of 31 March was collected. There were 1,169 cases being progressed on 31 March 2026. This statistic may be likely to be revised as the guidance is improved for next year.