Criminal Proceedings Statistical Bulletin
The Criminal Proceedings in Scotland Statistical Bulletin presents statistics on criminal proceedings concluded in Scottish courts as well as information on disposals issued by the Police and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, motor vehicle offences and statistics on bail orders and undertakings.
November 2009
A wide-ranging review of the publication commenced with a user consultation exercise in Autumn 2009. The results of the consultation were published in November 2009.
March 2010
The changes outlined in Group 1 of the consultation report were implemented in the 2008-09 statistical bulletin, published in March 2010, including additional breakdowns by gender, age, and geography, some new sentence trend analysis and the removal of motor vehicle offence analysis from the main bulletin into background datasets.
January 2011
The 2009-10 Bulletin contained some more substantial developments, mainly from Group 2 of the consultation report, including:
· for the first time, information on a range of Police and COPFS disposals;
· additional information on offence aggravations, presented alongside the bulletin as 'data being developed';
· developed an internal online evidence resource on offensive weapons and knife crime and have been working to develop more data for external release;
· publication brought forward by 2 months compared to last year.
September 2011
Further to a stakeholder review exercise completed in late 2009, and as outlined in the progress note published alongside the criminal proceedings bulletin in January 2011, we consulted on ceasing the data collections that derive the data presented in the additional motor vehicle datasets. Further information on this consultation can be found at the motor vehicles offences survey. As a result of the consultation we have decided to cease the data collections that inform the tables describing speeding and parking offences. The remaining additional motor vehicle data tables will not be published, but the data can be made available on request.
The future
We have now addressed many of the high demand/impact items highlighted in the 2009 stakeholder review. Planning is underway for future developments; it thought likely that over the next year or so we will focus on:
· responding to recent/forthcoming legislative changes; ensuring that we can provide the required data on Community Payback Orders (CPOs), the new sexual offences legislation and offence aggravations;
· further development of information on some non-court disposals;
· further development and release of topic-based information;
· improving our understanding and documentation of the internal database logic;
· bringing the 2010-11 bulletin further forward to December 2011.