Overview of Scottish Prison Population and Court Demand Trends

As shown in Figure 2 there have been substantial fluctuations in both the total and sentenced populations since 2020.

Figure 2. Prison population (total, remand and sentenced), between 26th March 2020 and 1st July 2025[1].

Total population

As can be seen in Figure 2, the prison population fluctuated within a range between 7,350 and 7,650 from September 2020 until late 2022. In 2023 and 2024, the population grew significantly and has remained above 7,800 since mid-July 2023. The population temporarily fell during late December and early January 2024 due to seasonal effects, before peaking at 8,361 on 14th May 2024.

The Emergency Release (ER)[2] of certain short-term prisoners led to 477 individuals being released early in June and July 2024. Following this, the population rose again, reaching 8,260 on 6th December[3]. Seasonal fluctuations continued into early 2025, before the population increased to reach 8,375 on 18th February.

In November 2024, the Scottish Government passed an Emergency Bill, resulting in eligible short-term prisoners being released at 40% of their sentence rather than 50%. The 312 individuals immediately impacted were released in tranches in February and March 2025[4]. This brought the population down to 8,170 on 21st March. It remained relatively stable over the following months, standing at 8,202 on 1st July 2025.

Remand population

The remand population increased from early 2022, peaking at 2,292 on 1st February 2022, gradually declining to 2,111 on 1st April 2023. It rose again in April and May 2023, reaching a peak of 2,312 on 30th May. From August to December 2023, the remand population generally decreased, falling to 2,081 on 1st January 2024.

A further increase occurred in early 2024, peaking at 2,360 on 14th May. The population then declined in the second half of 2024, reaching 2,124 on 1st January 2025. The highest remand population in 2025 so far was 2,289 on 25th March 2025. It has since decreased, standing at 2,094 on 1st  July 2025.

Over the past four years, the remand population has typically peaked before June and then declined slightly in the latter half of the year.

Sentenced population

The sentenced population decreased slightly during 2022, from around 5,350 in January to approximately 5,250 in December. It generally increased throughout 2023 and early 2024 until it reached 6,056 on 21st June 2024[5].

Following the ER measures[6], the sentenced population fell to 5,691 on 20th July 2024 but rose again later in the year. It stood at 6,108 on 17th of February 2025, just prior to the implementation of the Prisoners (Early Release) Act 2025. The population then declined to 5,891 on 23rd March, before increasing again to 6,108 on 1st July 2025.

Remand Arrivals and Sentenced Departures

The prison population varies according to the volume and composition of the flows into and out of the remand and sentenced populations. Remand arrivals and sentenced departures are particularly important as they represent the main inflows and outflows, respectively, from the overall prison population.

Figure 3 shows monthly remand arrivals from April 2020 to June 2025. Projections for July to December 2025 are sampled from the preceding twelve months (July 2024 to June 2025). The three-month period with the lowest remand arrivals – excluding December due to seasonal effects – was September to November 2024, with an average of around 710 remand arrivals per month.

Figure 3. Remand Arrivals and Sentenced Departures per month between April 2020 and June 2025.

Sentenced departures peaked in March 2025, partly due to the second and third tranches of early release under the new legislation. This was the highest monthly total since May 2020, when ER measures were implemented following the initial COVID-19 lockdown.

Composition of the sentenced prison population

Figure 4 shows the sentenced prison population from March 2020 to July 2025, broken down by sentence length. All population groups tended to increase between 1st January 2023 and June 2024. The short-term prison population decreased due to ER measures in June and July 2024 and again due to the short-term prisoner early release in February and March 2025.

The population serving overall sentences of more than four years, as well as those serving Orders of Lifelong Restriction, have steadily increased over several years and now exceed pre-pandemic levels. The population serving life sentences has gradually declined since 2020.

Figure 4. Prison populations by overall sentence, 26th March 2020 to 1st July 2025[7].

Drivers of growth in prison population since 2023

The growth in the total prison population since the beginning of 2023 has been driven by increases in both remand and sentenced arrivals. The remand population is influenced by the level of new cases registered and the number of cases concluded in Scottish Courts[8]. Elevated court throughput (i.e., case conclusions) can lead to increased flow into the sentenced population. The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) regularly publishes data on case registrations and conclusions across all court types[9].

On 1 April 2023, some court recovery programme resources were reallocated from summary to solemn procedure. This resulted in the addition of two High Court and six Sheriff Solemn trial courts[10], but a reduction of ten Sheriff Summary trial courts.

Figures 5 to 10 present trends in registrations and conclusions in recent years for High Court, Sheriff Court Solemn and Sheriff Court Summary.

Figure 5 shows the number of High Court indictment registrations over the last decade from 2014/15 Q1 (April-June 2014) to 2024/25 Q4 (January-March 2025)[11].  The level of very serious criminal cases registered has increased this year such that the number of High Court indictments registered in 2024/25 (1,105) was 18% higher than during 2023/24 (935).

Figure 6 shows that High Court conclusions during 2024/25 (1,135) were around 14% higher than during 2023/24 (996). In the latest SCTS criminal court modelling[12], it is assumed that High Court indictments will remain elevated, at around 1,100 per year for the next few years.

Figure 5. High Court Indictments registered[13].

Figure 6. High Court Indictments concluded[14].

Figure 7 shows that Sheriff Solemn Indictment registrations in 2024/25 (9,941) were around 11% lower than during 2023/24 (11,128).

Figure 8 shows that conclusions also declined slightly, by 4%, from 7,877 in 2023/24 to 7,556 in 2024/25.

Sheriff Solemn imprisonment disposals are likely to continue to be elevated compared to prior to the introduction of additional solemn courts in April 2023; for example, in the first 9 months of 2024/25 there were 4,773 imprisonments – 8% more than the 4,400 recorded in the same period in 2022/23[15].

Figure 7. Sheriff Court Solemn Indictments registered[16].

Figure 8. Sheriff Court Solemn Indictments concluded[17].

Figure 9 shows that 61,606 complaints were registered in 2024/25 in Sheriff Summary Courts, a 6% decrease from 65,357 in 2023/24.

Figure 10 shows that Sheriff Court summary conclusions in 2024/25 were around 5% higher than during 2023/24.

Sheriff Summary imprisonment disposals rose by about 16% in the first nine months of 2024/25 (9,016) compared to the same period in 2023/24 (7,763)[18].

Therefore, despite the reduction in Sheriff Summary courts from April 2023, the upward trend of imprisonment disposals – beginning in Q1 2022-23 – has continued, levels now comparable to pre-pandemic levels.

Figure 9. Sheriff Court Summary complaints registered[19].

Figure 10. Sheriff Court Summary complaints concluded[20].

Taking all courts into consideration, elevated remand arrivals are associated with increased levels of both summary and solemn criminal court activity[21].

SCTS quarterly management information[22] shows that the total number of trials scheduled[23] across all criminal courts increased steeply by around 140% from 18,100 in April 2020 to over 43,600 at the peak in January 2022 due to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of March 2025, this had fallen to 19,499.

However, trends vary by court type:

• Figure 11 shows that the number of outstanding High Court trials has increased by 7% between March 2024 (693) and March 2025 (743).

• Figure 12 shows that outstanding Sheriff Solemn trials decreased by 41% over the same period. The enhanced court recovery resources in solemn courts has helped with this reduction in future scheduled trials.

• Figure 13 shows a substantial 24% reduction in outstanding Sheriff Summary trials between March 2024 and March 2025.

Figure 11. High Court scheduled trials at end of period[24].

Figure 12. Sheriff Court Solemn scheduled trials at end of period[25].

Figure 13. Sheriff Court Summary scheduled trials at end of period[26].

[1] Breakdown of total, remand and sentenced prison population, Justice Analytical Services: safer communities and justice statistics monthly report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

[2] SPS Early Release Data, Research and Evidence, 2nd September 2024, Early Release of Prisoners and Prescribed Victim Supporters (Scotland) Regulations 2024- Data Analysis Summary Report.pdf (sps.gov.uk)

[3] Data, Research and Evidence | Scottish Prison Service, accessed 30th July 2025

[4] Release arrangements - Short-term prisoner release - gov.scot

[5] Data, Research and Evidence | Scottish Prison Service, accessed 30th July 2025

[6] Scottish Government, Prison population information note, 12th June 2024, Prison population: information note - gov.scot

[7] Prison population monthly report, Safer communities and justice statistics monthly reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

[8] Management Information from the Scottish Court and Tribunal Service (SCTS Official Published Statistics (scotcourts.gov.uk)) includes information about the arrival and liberty status for criminal case new business. This information includes the proportion who are on remand following Sheriff Court Petition (First Appearance) and Sheriff Court Summary First Calling (First Appearance), which have been broadly stable, ranging between 33.2% to 35.0% and 6.0 to 6.8% respectively during the past four years.

[9] SCTS official statistics, MI and analysis, SCTS Official Published Statistics (scotcourts.gov.uk)

[10] SCTS Quarterly Criminal Court (QCC) bulletin, 7th September 2023, Latest quarterly criminal court figures show progress in Sheriff solemn backlog (scotcourts.gov.uk)

[11] The SCTS QCC statistics provide quarterly Official Statistics on criminal case activity in Scotland. They follow an annual cycle which begins on 1st April, hence Q1 covers April to June, Q2 covers July to September, Q3 includes October to December and Q4 runs from January to March.

[12] SCTS Criminal Court Modelling, scts-modelling-report-10-24-final-003-1.pdf, 22nd October 2024.

[13] SCTS QCC bulletin, June 2025, High Court (QCC 2), SCTS Official Published Statistics (scotcourts.gov.uk).

[14] ibid

[15] Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard, Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard (shinyapps.io), accessed 30th July 2025. The management information in the disposals dashboard shows disposals issued in Scottish criminal courts at charge level. This data does not indicate how many people received disposals as each accused person can have multiple charges and each charge can receive multiple disposals. Therefore, a change in charge level disposals could be related to changes in complexity of cases being disposed of in court (more or less charges per case). As such, the level of imprisonment disposals provides a broadly indicative, rather than precise, measure of activity.

[16] SCTS QCC bulletin, June 2025, Sheriff Court Solemn (QCC 3), SCTS Official Published Statistics (scotcourts.gov.uk).

[17] ibid

[18] Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard, Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard (shinyapps.io), accessed 30th July 2025.

[19] SCTS QCC bulletin, June 2025, Sheriff Court Summary (QCC 4), SCTS Official Published Statistics (scotcourts.gov.uk).

[20] ibid

[21] Analysis of the drivers of criminal case registrations are beyond the scope of this publication. National crime statistics are updated annually: Recorded crime in Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

[22] SCTS QCC bulletin, June 2025, National Overview of criminal court cases in Scotland (QCC 2), SCTS Management Information, SCTS Official Published Statistics (scotcourts.gov.uk).

[23] Outstanding trials scheduled are sometimes colloquially known as the criminal trials backlog.

[24] SCTS QCC bulletin, June 2025, High Court trial indictments scheduled (QCC 2), SCTS Official Published Statistics (scotcourts.gov.uk).

[25] SCTS QCC bulletin, June 2025, Sheriff Court Solemn trial indictments scheduled (QCC 3), SCTS Official Published Statistics (scotcourts.gov.uk).

[26] SCTS QCC bulletin, June 2025, Sheriff Court Summary trial indictments scheduled (QCC 4), SCTS Official Published Statistics (scotcourts.gov.uk).