McArthur: Community orders should be credible solutions to prison overcrowding

Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Liam McArthur MSP has today said that the SNP Government must do far more to boost the number of community payback orders being issued and improve enforcement after new statistics revealed that numbers are at some of their lowest in a decade.

The Scottish Government’s Justice Social Work Statistics summarises the main trends in community orders and justice social work reports. The latest set of statistics found that:

• In 2023/24, around 15,100 community payback orders (CPOs) were issued. This is the fourth lowest number in the last decade.
• The number of unpaid work requirements successfully completed fell by 26% between 2014-15 and 2019-20, with the number of work orders in 2023-24 still lower than pre-pandemic levels.
• Since the pandemic, a lower proportion of CPOs have been finished in the same year as they were imposed.

Mr McArthur said:

“At a time when Scotland’s prions are bursting at the seams, it’s worrying that there are so few community-based alternatives being issued and completed.

“Packing more and more people into prisons is counterproductive. It makes it very challenging for staff to work with inmates and successfully rehabilitate them to reduce the chances of reoffending.  

“Community payback orders are a key part of the solution because they can ease pressure on the system and ensure people get a credible alternative to prison time.

“The Scottish Government must do more to boost the number of community payback orders and improve enforcement by ensuring they are completed. That’s how we can strike the right balance between punishing, rehabilitating and cutting reoffending.”