Justice Social Work Statistics: 2024-25

13 Jan 2026 10:47 AM

An Accredited Official Statistics Publication for Scotland

The Chief Statistician has released part 2 of the 2024-25 justice social work statistics. This includes information on community payback orders (CPOs), drug treatment and testing orders (DTTOs) and justice social work reports, as well as characteristics of the people involved.

There were 16,500 CPOs commenced in 2024-25. This was nine per cent up on 2023-24 and the fifth highest in ten years.

In 2024-25, 69 per cent of CPOs were issued with an unpaid work requirement. Slightly less (67 per cent) were issued with a supervision requirement.

The average hours given as part of CPO unpaid work requirements increased from 121 hours in 2015-16 to 137 hours in 2024-25. The 2024-25 average was the highest in the last ten years.

The successful completion rate for CPOs in 2024-25 was 71 per cent, the same as in 2023-24.

There were 230 DTTOs imposed in 2024-25. This was a 20 per cent fall from 280 in 2023-24 and the lowest in the last ten years.

The successful completion rate for DTTOs in 2023-24 was 53 per cent.

The number of justice social work reports submitted (including supplementary reports) rose by six per cent between 2023-24 and 2024-25 to 29,600. This was the highest level since 2016-17.

Background

The full statistical publication is at https://www.gov.scot/publications/justice-social-work-statistics-in-scotland-2024-25-part-2.

Accredited official statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Justice social work statistics is now published in two parts. Justice Social Work Statistiscs 2024-25 – Part 1 was published in September 2025.

Information is provided for 2024-25 and, where possible, for the years back to 2015-16, in order to show trends over the last ten years. Tables at local authority area level, updated to include 2024-25, have also been published and contain up to ten years of data.

The trend data supplied in the publication was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that statistics for most areas of justice social work were impacted in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Caution is advised in comparing data from these two years with other years.

Further statistics on Justice Social Work are available: Justice social work statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)