Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has made no payments, loans or grants directly to Police Scotland in the last two years.

This information is not currently available.

Detailed statistics for Fiscal Works Orders (FWOs) will be included in the annual Criminal Justice Social Work Statistics in Scotland bulletins from 2015-16 onwards. This will include data on the number of assessments undertaken by local authorities; the number of orders commenced; the number of orders completed/terminated; and the number of orders commenced broken down by the number of hours involved. This data will be available at a local authority level, and the Scottish Government currently anticipates that the 2015-16 statistics will be published in February or March of 2017.

The Criminal Proceedings in Scotland bulletin will also include data on FWOs from 2015-16, including information on the offence types for which FWOs have been imposed. We currently anticipate that the data for 2015-16 will be published in December 2016.

Where possible, local Fiscal Work Order (FWO) schemes should harness the potential of local organisations to both provide activities and be involved in carrying them out. Local authorities do not, however, receive contributions from businesses or organisations that provide FWO placements.

Local authorities may contract with another agency or agencies to provide and manage the prescribed activities undertaken as part of a FWO. Where this takes place, the contract should be in the form of a Service Level Agreement and local authorities must make arrangements to ensure that the agency fulfils its contractual obligations.

No such targets are set for local authorities. The provision of Fiscal Work Orders is governed by the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, as amended, which provides that both the decision to send a work offer, and the subsequent decision to impose a work order, is one for Prosecutors to consider on a case by case basis.

The Scottish Government’s assessment is that the imposition of a Fiscal Work Order (FWO) should not adversely impact an individual’s ability to meet the requirements of either (i) out-of-work or (ii) means tested social security benefits. As such, we have not had specific discussions with Department for Work and Pensions in relation to FWOs.

An individual made subject to a FWO is given six months in which to complete their order which can carry a maximum of 50 hours. The National Guidelines on Fiscal Work Orders, which were issued to all local authorities in advance of the national rollout, make it clear that prescribed activities should take into account any outstanding obligations, including those relating to employment, education or domestic circumstances, which the individual made subject to the order may have. This includes the provision of activities at various times throughout the week (including evenings and weekends) and throughout the geographical area covered by the scheme.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Local authorities are encouraged to develop programmes which will reduce the likelihood of individuals engaging in future offending behaviour. For example, programmes which increase the individual's awareness of the impacts of their offending; challenge antisocial attitudes or assumptions; and encourage personal and social responsibilities and self respect, and/or the development of life skills and problem solving.

Furthermore, while it is generally intended that unpaid work activities should constitute the bulk of the time an individual spends on a Fiscal Work Order, up to 10% of the order (where appropriate) may be used for educational activities. This can include activities which would encourage development of employability skills.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Where possible, local Fiscal Work Order (FWO) schemes should harness the potential of local organisations to both provide activities and be involved in carrying them out. Local authorities are required to appoint a supervising officer in relation to each individual made subject to a FWO, and it is the responsibility of the supervising officer to determine the nature of work which that individual is required to perform. As with other community disposals, local authorities may provide and manage the prescribed activities themselves, or contract with another agency or agencies to do so on their behalf.

The national rollout of Fiscal Work Orders (FWOs), which commenced in April 2015, was a direct response to a recommendation of the final report of the Commission on Women Offenders which was published in 2012. In that report, the Commission highlighted that FWOs were a useful addition to the wider suite of diversion from prosecution measures and that FWOs had been found to have high completion and low breach rates. The Commission therefore recommended that 'Fiscal Work Orders are made available throughout Scotland for male and female offenders'. The Scottish Government accepted this recommendation, and made additional funding available to Community Justice authorities to support the rollout.

In addition, to further support and inform the rollout, the Scottish Government established a National Implementation Group with membership from a range of Justice agencies involved in the delivery of these orders. As part of their considerations, the Implementation Group received informal and time-limited feedback from local authorities which confirmed that FWOs were being used in every authority, albeit in small numbers, and that the rollout was not impacting on service delivery.

To date, the Scottish Government has received 27 public representations in support of the application and 245 in opposition.

The consideration that officials and Ministers have been required to give to this proposal has been complex and time consuming. Now that the Public Local Inquiry is complete Scottish Ministers are considering the terms of the report and should be in a position to make a decision in due course.