Statistical Bulletin: Crime and Justice Series: Criminal Justice Social Work Statistics, 2010-11

1 Introduction

1.1 This statistical bulletin presents national level information on activity relating to community penalties in Scotland, almost all of which is derived from Local Authority Social Work management information systems. It provides information on various aspects of criminal justice social work such as Social Enquiry Reports ( SERs) and social work orders (made up of Community Service Orders ( CSOs), Probation Orders ( POs), Supervised Attendance Orders ( SAOs) and Drug Treatment & Testing Orders ( DTTOs)). There is also some information on Community Payback Orders, which replaced CSOs, POs and SAOs for offences committed on or after 1 February 2011. It should be noted that individuals could be subject to several different reports and/or orders.

1.2 Between 2006-07 & 2008-09, the number of social work orders showed a gen-eral increase. However, this trend reversed in the most recent two years with the number of orders in 2010-11 back to around the same levels as 2006-07 ( Chart 1 & Table 1). This is roughly in line with sentencing trends in Scottish Courts.

Chart 1 Total number of social work orders imposed, 2006-07 to 2010-11