Almost 2,000 Scots avoid prosecution for minor offences

The number of people escaping prosecution for minor offences has more than doubled since 2010-11, new figures have revealed.

Last year, prosecutors referred 1,980 people to criminal justice social work teams as part of their “diversion from prosecution” scheme, rather than taking them to court, up from 958 in 2010-11.

Scottish Government figures which revealed the rise also showed about two-thirds (67.5%) of community payback orders (CPOs) were successfully completed in 2016-17 – down from 71.7% three years ago.

Scottish Conservatives said that meant more than 6,000 offenders had failed to complete their sentence last year as they called on ministers to rethink plans to abolish prison terms of less than a year.

Less than half (44.1%) of drug treatment and testing orders (DTTOs) were successfully completed in 201617, a drop of about 10 percentage points from the 54.8% achieved in 2014-15.

These sentences are handed out to offenders struggling with addiction who would otherwise be jailed, with the latest criminal justice social work statistics showing in the last two years the success rate for DTTOs has “fallen to the lowest in any of the last seven years”.

It added: “The completion rate for DTTOs does tend to be lower than for other social work orders due to the complex needs of those involved.”

Offenders began a total of 19,067 CPOs in 2016-17, with the report stating the number of these sentences handed out had “stabilised at around 19,000 in each of the last four years”.