FOI/202500464468 · FOI · unclear
Non-harassment order statistics: FOI release
Information requested
You asked for an amendment of the answer in relation to a previous FOI disclosure relating to the issue of non-harassment orders in the sentencing of cases of domestic abuse and other crimes with domestic abuse aggravators by court type applied (FOI/202500462174).
This is your new request:
“Please can you provide the number of Non Harassment Orders NOT applied for case-accused convicted for domestic abuse offences (including offences with domestic abuse aggravators) by court type. Please can this be added into table 2*. I would like to understand the rate at which they are being refused and how this differs by court type. I would like to see the number of NHOs applied Vs not applied (by court type) within the same table please.”
*from previous FOI 202500462174.
Response
Regarding your new request, the number of people convicted for domestic abuse offences or offences with domestic abuse aggravators by court type has been extracted from the management information used to publish the Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard (Source: Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard).
We have considered the same domestic abuse aggravators used to answer the previous FOI:
CODE Aggravation Legislation D Domestic Abuse W Statutory Aggravation - Domestic Abuse Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 Y Domestic Abuse Statutory Aggravation involving a child Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018
D aggravator is used for cases where COPFS consider it to be a domestic abuse case, but the statutory aggravation in the 2016 Act doesn't apply. Courts are under statutory obligation to consider an NHO in cases where the statutory W aggravator is used and the 2018 Act Y aggravator is used, but not cases where the D aggravator is used.
Table 1 shows the total number of people convicted for a domestic abuse offence or another offence with domestic abuse aggravator and, how many of those accused, got a non-harassment order because of any of those offences by court type and financial year.
Table 1: Non-Harassment orders for case-accused convicted for domestic abuse offences (including offences with domestic abuse aggravators) by court type.
Court type Number of case-accused 1,2,3 High Court Sheriff Solemn Sheriff Summary JP Court Total Non-Harassment orders issued No Yes4 No Yes4 No Yes4 No Yes4 No Yes4 2018-2019 83 3 286 113 8,769 993 25 0 9,163 1,109 2019-2020 77 14 286 178 8,374 1,548 35 1 8,772 1,741 2020-2021 53 9 150 213 5,980 1,696 4 0 6,187 1,918 2021-2022 78 34 226 353 6,814 2,804 10 0 7,128 3,191 2022-2023 86 68 274 441 6,718 3,022 6 3 7,084 3,534 2023-2024 72 133 271 552 6,046 3,325 3 1 6,392 4,011 2024-2025 59 196 248 562 6,077 3,830 4 0 6,388 4,588
1 Number of people convicted of at least one domestic abuse offence or another offence with a domestic abuse aggravator in a case 2 If there are multiple accused in a case they will be counted separately 3 If a person appears in more than one case per year then they will be counted more than once 4 Limited to one per person per case
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Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Correspondence Unit Email: contactus@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrew's House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
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