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Publication - Statistics

Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report: February 2026

Published
26 February 2026
From
Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs, +4 more … Minister for Victims and Community Safety, Lord Advocate, Chief Statistician, Director-General Education and Justice
Directorate
Safer Communities Directorate, +2 more … Justice Directorate, Children and Families Directorate
Topic
Communities and third sector, Law and order, Public safety and emergencies

This report contains summary statistics covering a number of important justice and safer communities areas. It is updated with the most recently published statistics.

Part of

Supporting documents

Statistics on criminal proceedings

Number of prosecutions and convictions in 2023-24 both fell 7%, but solemn proceedings, which are more complex and take longer to conclude in court, increased. The number of people convicted in Scottish courts in 2023-24 was 63,486, 7% lower than the 67,966 seen in 2022-23.

Chart 9: Number of people convicted in Scottish courts – 2014-15 to 2023-24

Annual number of people convicted in Scottish courts, as reported by the Scottish Government's criminal proceedings data, 2014-15 to 2023-24. There has been a general decrease over the decade apart from recovery during the pandemic period.

Note: Data from 2020-21 onwards were affected by the Covid pandemic and should not be considered indicative of long term trends.

Rise in convictions for serious crimes between 2022-23 and 2023-24. Convictions for non-sexual crimes of violences rose by 4% and sexual crimes rose by 12%. These include 19% increases in convictions under both the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act (up to 897, a new high) and rape and attempted rape (221, a new all-time high going back to 1989-90).

Rise in proportions of custodial and community sentences in 2023-24. Reflecting the increase in the proportion of more serious offences convicted in 2023-24, the proportion of custodial sentences was 16% (three percentage points higher than in 2022-23). The proportion of community sentences also increased, by one percentage point to 25%, the highest in the 10-year span.

Average custodial sentence increased again to new all-time high. The average custodial sentence length, excluding life and indeterminate sentences, was 393 days in 2023-24. This was 2% higher than in 2022-23 (386 days) and the highest on record (since 1989-90).  New analysis in the 2023-24 bulletin shows this rise is driven by an increasing proportion of more serious offences, which attract longer sentences, and sentence inflation, where longer sentences were given for the same main charge.

Community payback orders slightly more likely to have supervision than unpaid work. There were 15,100 community payback orders imposed in 2023-24. This was 3% higher than in 2022-23 but still 10% lower than in 2019-20. In 2023-24, 68.0 per cent were issued with an unpaid work requirement, while slightly more (68.2 per cent) were issued with a supervision requirement.

Chart 10: Community payback orders imposed – percentage of orders with different requirements, 2023-24

Percentage of community payback orders with the different requirements, as reported in the annual justice social work data, 2023-24. The highest percentages are for the offender supervision and the unpaid work or other activity requirements.

Reconviction rates are still yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, but have increased  over the last few years. The overall reconviction rate for the 2021-22 cohort was 27.1%, almost the same as the rate for the 2020-21 cohort (27.0%). Data is still likely to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but to a lesser extent than the previous year.

The average number of reconvictions per offender has decreased over time. The average number of reconvictions per offender was 14% lower in 2021-22 compared to 2012-13.  The largest decrease in average number of reconvictions was for those aged between 31 and 40, a decrease of 16% since 2012-13.

Chart 11: Average reconvictions per offender by age, 2012-13 and 2021-22 cohorts

Average number of reconvictions within a year of being given a non-custodial sentence or being released from a custodial sentence : breakdown by age group, 2012-13 and 2021-22. The 2012-13 averages are higher than 2021-22.

Number of children referred to SCRA on offence grounds fell by nine per cent in the last year. Statistics published by the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA) show that, in 2024-25, 2,447 children were referred to the reporter on offence grounds. This constitutes a fall of 9% from 2023-24 and is 11% lower than in 2015-16.

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