More than 5,000 hours of unpaid work are to be sliced from Angus criminals’ community payback orders under a Covid-19 cutback scheme.
The move is part of a nationwide programme to save criminal justice services being swamped by a build-up of hours which could not be completed because of the pandemic.
It follows a 12-month extension under Scottish Government coronavirus legislation for unpaid work and other orders to be completed.
In late January, Scottish justice secretary Humza Yousaf also laid draft regulations before Holyrood which will lead to a 35% reduction in the number of hours originally imposed.
Some offences excluded
The new rules will exclude CPOs handed down for domestic abuse, sexual offences or stalking.
It is estimated almost 300,000 hours in total will be removed from the system nationwide and up to 15% of outstanding orders will be immediately completed because offenders have already carried out 65% or more of their unpaid work.
One leading Angus official has warned the service locally remains under serious pressure, even with the reductions.
In a report to policy and resources committee councillors, Kathryn Lindsay, the authority’s director of children, families and justice revealed a near 70% drop in the amount of unpaid work carried out in the county due to the pandemic.
Just 4,256 hours were completed district-wide between April last year and the start of 2021 – compared to almost 13,500 hours for the corresponding period the previous year.
The figure represents a 68% drop.
Ms Lindsay said: “In normal circumstances, pre-Covid the justice service in Angus facilitates and supervises around 1,400 hours of unpaid work per month, with a mixture of individual and small group activities.
“As of January 1 2021, there were 152 individuals with 177 open community payback orders.”
Councillors were told that by February 1, the tally of outstanding hours in Angus stood at 12,637.
The 35% rule will remove 5,416 hours from the total.
Courts suspended
Ms Lindsay added: “It should be noted that the courts were suspended from around March 23 2020 until June 8 2020, which has impacted on the processing of individuals and sentencing, and thus on the number of community payback orders imposed.
“The service continues to explore options and opportunities for those on community payback orders with an unpaid work or other activity requirement, including extending the access to ‘other activities’.
“Whilst the steps taken with the new regulations are welcome, the justice service is acutely aware that there will be increased demands in the months ahead.,” she said.