Increase in breaches of tagging orders
5 Dec 07
Figures up 61% from previous year
Breaches of tagging orders have increased by 61% in the last year, according to new figures released by the Scottish Government.
The figures show that in 2006-07, a total of 1,018 restriction of liberty orders (i.e. electronic tagging) were imposed, a rise of 3% from the previous year. However reports of breaches of tagging orders totalled 1,588, an increase of 61% from 2005-06's numbers (986).
The statistics also show a rise in the number of applications made to the courts over breaches of community service (26%), probation (8%) and drug treatment and testing orders (37%).
However, the number of breach applications for supervised attendance orders fell by 23% from the 2005-06 total of 1,462 to 1,125 in 2006-07.
The total number of drug treatment and testing orders made increased by 16% to 696, or 1.9 orders per 10,000 population, with 318 breaches and 550 terminations.
Cases diverted from prosecution totalled 1,133, a decrease of 5% from the previous year; and a total of 2,741 stand down reports were provided to the courts, an increase of 72%.