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We welcome the publication of Audit Scotland’s report on community justice, and its intention to carry out further work in this vital area in 2022.

While sentencing decisions in individual cases are a matter for the independent courts, we are committed to encouraging more widespread use of community-based interventions where appropriate. These are often more effective at reducing re-offending, as Audit Scotland sets out, and for keeping our communities safe.

In addition to continued investment in community justice services, which will total more than £117m this year, Parliament agreed in 2019 to extend the presumption against short custodial sentences from 3 to 12 months. Although it is too early to determine the impact of the extension, the use of such sentences has fallen significantly in recent years, with those receiving a sentence of 12 months or less reducing by 13% in the most recent data between 2018-19 and 2019-20, whereas the number of convictions reduced by 4%.

Our firm focus on prevention and effective community interventions has helped see Scotland’s reconviction rate fall to its lowest level since comparable records began more than 20 years ago. We intend to continue building on progress to date, including through a review of the National Strategy for Community Justice, expanding availability of alternatives to custody, and exploring legislative opportunities for a sustainable reduction in the prison population.

We will consider the issues identified by Audit Scotland in its report, including as part of the review and expected refresh of the Community Justice strategy, which we anticipate will be published in 2022 alongside an update Outcomes, Performance and Improvement Framework.

The offences related to 'Finn’s law' would be reported under Section 19 (1) of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.

No such charges relating to attacks on service animals have been reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service since the introduction of the Act, which received Royal Assent on 21st July 2020. Therefore there have been no convictions to date.

As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, temporary restrictions have been introduced within the Scottish Prison Service, where necessary, in line with Scottish Government guidelines and public health advice. This included the temporary suspension of Home Leave between March 2020 and May 2021.

There has been one change in the Prison Rules, in relation to Temporary Release, since 5 December 2019. The Prisoners and Young Offenders Institutions (Scotland) Amendment Rules 2020, which came into force on 7 April 2020, provided Scottish Ministers with the ability to extend the period a prisoner is on home leave for up to 14 days from the normal 7 days. It is anticipated that it could be used where prisoners advise that they or someone in their home has developed symptoms of the Coronavirus and in compliance with government advice they are required to self-isolate.

There have been some minor changes to the Directions made under the Rule 138 (Direction with respect to Temporary Release) since 5 December 2019.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data. However, information is published annually in the Standards of Service for Victims and Witnesses Annual Report. For the past three years where information is available the number of in-person representations that were made is as follows:

2020-2021* 16

2019-2020* 27

2018-2019 18

*Due to Covid restrictions some meetings have been held remotely.

The most recent reconviction rates show that 29% of people with a Community Payback Order (CPO) imposed in 2017-18 were reconvicted within a year, which is the lowest rate since they were introduced. These statistics are not typically broken down in regard to different requirements within CPOs such as unpaid work or supervision. However, Justice Analytical Services published ‘Community Payback Orders: What the Unit Level Data Tells Us So Far’ in February 2020 which found that the reconviction rate for those given unpaid work between 2012-13 and 2014-15 was 33% where this was accompanied by justice social work supervision, and 27% where it was not. These figures compare with 41% for those given orders with no unpaid work. While no conclusions can be drawn about the impact of unpaid work on offending behaviour, this may suggest that individuals who do not have unpaid work imposed are likely to have more complex and entrenched issues to address and may have greater likelihood of reoffending.

Overall, CPOs are an important aspect of a sustained focus on prevention and effective community interventions which has helped see Scotland’s reconviction rate fall to its lowest level since comparable records began more than 20 years ago.

CPOs offer opportunities for rehabilitation by requiring individuals to tackle the underlying causes of their offending behaviour. They also deliver real benefits to communities, and while capacity to deliver unpaid work has been significantly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, around 9 million hours of unpaid work have been carried out since CPOs were introduced.

The information requested is not held centrally and is a matter for the Parole Board for Scotland.

Data is not available at this time on the number of times body worn cameras have been used by Police Scotland as evidence to secure a conviction.

Should the decision be made to rollout the use of body worn cameras to other roles across Police Scotland, a range of data will be gathered to assess the impacts of the rollout including quantative data relating to criminal justice processes.

The Victims Taskforce was established in December 2018 to co-ordinate and drive action to improve the experience of victims and witnesses in the criminal justice system - it is not in the Taskforce’s remit to recommend legislative change.

A number of legislative changes have been progressed by the Scottish Government since the inception of the Taskforce that advance or facilitate actions in the Taskforce’s work plan and provide a legislative framework within which further improvements can be made. Examples of primary legislation include the Vulnerable Witnesses (Criminal Evidence) (Scotland) Act 2019, the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Act 2021 and the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. Furthermore, various pieces of secondary legislation have seen the implementation of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, the establishment of the Victim Surcharge Fund, the creation of a statutory Appropriate Adult service, more flexible powers to pilot improvements to the victim statement scheme and changes to Parole Board Rules to ensure victims are better informed, more involved and receive greater support ahead of prison release decisions.

The Welfare and Wellbeing of Police Officers, and the allocation of resources, is a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority.

Officers and staff can access a range of services to care for their physical and mental health through Police Scotland's “Your Wellbeing Matters” programme. This includes the introduction of Wellbeing Champions, and has resulted in raised awareness of the services available such as occupational health and employee assistance, which offer counselling, and specific interactions through the Trauma Risk Management programme (TRiM). We continue to support policing in Scotland and despite constraints on Scotland’s public services, through a decade of UK austerity, policing services have been maintained and improved and we will protect the police resource budget in real terms for the entirety of this Parliamentary term, as we did for the last. We have invested over £10 billion in policing since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013 and have increased the policing budget by £75.5 million in 2021-22.

We have made a commitment to increase the direct investment into mental health services by at least 25% and ensure that, by the end of the parliament, 10% of our frontline NHS budget will be invested in mental health services.

We have also set our plan to prevent, mitigate and respond to the mental health impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic through our ‘Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan’, published in October 2020, which sets out our response to the mental health effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, containing over 100 actions. The Plan is supported by a £120 million Recovery and Renewal fund, announced in February 2021. The Fund will transform services, with a renewed focus on prevention and early intervention. We expect total spend, including by NHS Scotland, on mental health in 2021-22, to be in excess of £1.2 billion.

The Scottish Government does not hold the data requested.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is responsible for issuing Victim Notification Scheme packs. They have advised that the number of packs issued over the last 3 years is:

2018-19 1,880

2019-20 1,788

2020-21 1,158

Eligible victims can register for the scheme at any time. The Scottish Prison Service have advised that the numbers of victims who have opted to register for the scheme in the last 3 years, are as follows:

2018-19 443

2019-20 472

2020-21 306