This publication will be available in accessible HTML on the gov.scot website. Justice Analytical Services Coronavirus (COVID-19) Data Report: January 2021 Published 25th February 2021 Summary This pack provides information on the impact of COVID-19 on the Justice system during January 2021. Data has been gathered from a number of different sources and may be subject to future revision. Public compliance This pack includes information on COVID-19 related interventions undertaken by Police Scotland. In addition to this, information on the public’s compliance with measures to help restrict the spread of COVID-19 is collected from surveys of the population. Findings from these surveys can be found in the Public attitudes to Coronavirus: January Update. Claimed compliance was high in November and December. Police activity Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), Courts & Prisons COPFS greatly reduced the Recorded crime was 6% lower over number of reports awaiting marking April 2020 to January 2021 January 2021. compared to the preceding year. To reduce footfall in lockdown, the The number of incidents remain majority of summary business was below 2020 levels. adjourned on 12th January. Domestic abuse incidents were 4% Community disposals were higher in April 2020 to January returning to 19-20 levels but there 2021 compared to the preceding remains a backlog of cases (and year. associated disposals) to conclude. Coronavirus interventions Initiations and disposals in the civil increased by 43% between court remain below 19-20 levels. December 2020 and January 2021. Prison populations decreased slightly as court business abated. The number of prisoners on remand remain at historically high levels. Summary| 1 Contents Summary ................................................................................................................................... 1 How crime flows through the Justice System ..................................................................... 3 101 and 999 call volumes ...................................................................................................... 5 Incidents recorded ................................................................................................................... 6 Recorded Crime in Scotland .................................................................................................. 7 Coronavirus legislation intervention activity ..................................................................11 Police Recorded Domestic Abuse Incidents .................................................................13 Reports received by COPFS ...............................................................................................16 First substantive marking .....................................................................................................17 Summary of COPFS First Substantive Markings .............................................................18 Subjects not marked for court..............................................................................................19 Subjects marked for court ....................................................................................................20 Criminal Registered & Scheduled Trials ............................................................................22 Criminal Disposals.................................................................................................................23 Sheriff Court Civil Case Volumes........................................................................................24 Case initiations and disposals .........................................................................................24 Sheriff Court initiated and disposed cases by procedure................................................25 Case types ..............................................................................................................................26 Prison population ...................................................................................................................28 Remand Arrivals ....................................................................................................................29 Sources and further information ..........................................................................................31 2 How crime flows through the Justice System Incident reported Incident is reviewed by Police to determine if it is a crime. If a crime, Police charge suspect (where possible) and issue: Crime • a Fixed Penalty Notice or Recorded Police classified & suspect Warning, charged • a report to COPFS or • decide on no further action. The accused will be: 1. Kept in custody - Case called the next court day. Police 2. Released on an Undertaking report the Accused told when to appear and may have bail conditions. case to COPFS 3. At liberty If prosecuted, the accused will receive a citation stating the charge and when to appear. Prosecutor decides if accused is prosecuted: 1. No action - e.g. not enough evidence. 2. Direct Measure Report An alternative to prosecution, e.g. Fiscal Fine or warning marked by letter. COPFS 3. Summary prosecution - JP or Sheriff Court (no jury) 4. Solemn prosecution - Sheriff or High Court (with jury) If the accused is found guilty in court, or tendered a guilty plea, then they can be given: Case heard • Custodial Sentence & court • Community Sentence • Monetary Penalty outcomes • Admonished/Dismissed • ‘Other’ disposal 3 Police Activity (Police Scotland) Police Activity | 4 101 and 999 call volumes Total weekly 999 & 101 calls remain below 2020 levels Both 101 calls and 999 calls have remained relatively stable over the past four months. There may be evidence of a slight downward trend in 999 calls since August. In the week ending 31st January there were 36,302 calls made. When combined, calls were slightly higher than the previous week. Number of calls 40,000 35,000 30,000 101 calls 25,000 20,000 15,000 999 calls 10,000 5,000 0 05 Jul 05 Jul 19 12 Apr 12 Apr 26 Oct 11 Oct 25 03 Jan 03 07 Jun 07 Jun 21 Jan 17 Jan 31 29 Mar 29 08 Nov 08 Nov 22 Dec 06 Dec 20 02 Aug 02 Aug 16 Aug 30 Sep 13 Sep 27 10 May 10 24 May 24 (Week ending) 24th January 2021 31st January 2021 101 calls 27,357 27,535 999 calls 8,846 8,767 Total calls 36,203 36,302 Police Activity | 5 Incidents recorded Weekly incident numbers remain below 2020 levels Since March 2020, incident numbers have been trending below levels for the preceding year. Scotland entered Phase 2 of its route map on 28th May. There was an increase in incidents during that week (w/e Sunday 31st May). However, incident numbers remained below 2019 levels in the weeks that folllowed, and declined from November onwards. Scotland entered a new period of lockdown on 4th January 2021. Since then, incidents have remained comparatively low. Number of incidents 40,000 35,000 Mar 2019 – Jan 2020 30,000 25,000 Mar 2020 – Jan 2021 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 19 Jul 19 05 Jul 05 11 Oct 11 Oct 25 12 Apr 12 Apr 26 17 Jan 17 Jan 31 07 Jun 07 Jun 21 Jan 03 29 Mar 29 08 Nov 08 Nov 22 Dec 06 20 Dec 20 02 Aug 02 Aug 16 Aug 30 13 Sep 13 Sep 27 10 May 10 May 24 In the week ending 31st January: 26,762 Down 5% compared to an equivalent week in incidents recorded 2020 (28,105 incidents) Further information: A full breakdown of calls & incident volumes is available from: https://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/covid-19-police-scotland- response/enforcement-and-response-data/ Police Activity | 6 Recorded Crime in Scotland The recorded crime figures presented below exclude crimes recorded under the coronavirus legislation. January 2021 The number of crimes recorded in 2021 has returned to trending below 2020 levels. The number of crimes reco rded in January 2021 was 12% lower than in January 2020, and the number of offences was 16% lower than in January 2020. Since last year, most crime and offence groups have seen a reduction while one group is at a higher level. Other crimes were 15% higher (or 704 crimes). This increase was driven by rises in Crimes against public justice (up 32%, or 494 crimes). Police Activity | 7 Police Activity | 8 April 2020 to January 2021 In January 2021, crime remained below levels for the preceding year after seeing an increase in November. When looking across April 2020 to January 2021*, 193,375 crimes were recorded. This was 6% lower than April 2019 to January 2020 (206,567 crimes recorded). When comparing to previous months, crime since the start of the pandemic has generally remained below that of the preceding year, with the exception of November. *The recorded crime figures presented here exclude crimes recorded under the new coronavirus legislation. Police Activity | 9 The biggest drivers of the reduction across April to January were Shoplifting, Other theft and Vandalism etc. The biggest drivers of the 6% reduction The biggest increases of this period over April to January (by volume) were: were in: Shoplifting Fraud 33% (or 8,429 crimes) 63% (or 5,614 crimes) Other theft Crimes against public justice 19% (or 6,515 crimes) 32% (or 5,142 crimes) Vandalism etc. 12% (or 4,613 crimes) The Changes in levels of recorded fraud section in the latest bulletin provides further background on what may be contributing to the above increase. Further Information: The data in this section comes from the monthly Official Statistics on crimes and offences recorded by the police in Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, please see Recorded