Community Payback Orders

28th August 2024

The Chief Statistician has released figures on Community Payback Orders (CPOs) - unpaid work and other activity requirements today.

The publication covers the changes in rates of progression during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, information on number of hours imposed by the courts for this requirement and the number of unpaid work hours to be progressed.

In 2022-23, there were 14,700 CPOs imposed by the courts, which included 1.32 million unpaid work hours imposed as part of unpaid work requirements.

At the start of the financial year 2023-24, there were 9,100 unpaid work requirements being progressed in Scotland.

During April to December 2023, there have been around 991,600 unpaid work hours imposed by courts over these nine months. This has increased by at least 2% from the same time-period in 2022.

The most recent estimate for May 2024 showed 817,100 unpaid work hours were to be progressed, an increase of about 5% from May 2023 figure of 780,900.