New scheme to trial work orders in court
5 Mar 08
Working in the community to be an alternative to fines
Alleged offenders who are too poor to pay fines could be offered community-based reparation work instead.
From June of this year, fiscal work order pilots will run in South Lanarkshire, West Lothian, West Dunbartonshire and Highland Council. The Scottish Government will provide £200,000 a year to fund the schemes.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill described the scheme as a "can't pay, should work" approach to dealing with low level offences such as grafitti, vandalism and minor shoplifting - helping to free up court time for more serious cases.
The pilots, introduced as part of the summary justice reforms, will allow for 400 fiscal work orders per year, 100 for each local authority participating. Across Scotland in 2005-06, 18,000 fiscal fines were imposed.
New approach
Mr MacAskill said: "We want to see if this approach will help to remove a group of low level offenders from the courts and instead get them to give something back to their communities.
"We want valuable court time to be focused on those matters which can only be dealt with by way of prosecution. It's important that fewer cases go to court needlessly, and that those cases which do go to court get there more quickly, are better prepared and progress more speedily.
Speaking about community sentences in general, Mr MacAskill said in the last month alone, Scotland's prison population broke the 2007 record no fewer than 25 times. Community sentencing, he said, was more effective for low level offenders, as statistics showed that 75% of those sent to prison for under six months were reconvicted within two years, compared to only 39% of those given community sentences.