Question reference: S6W-26433
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 22 March 2024
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Current status: Answered by Angela Constance on 22 April 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many domestic abuse cases resulted in the accused receiving an absolute discharge in each of the last five years.
Answer
There is no single crime of domestic abuse. Instead domestic abuse can refer to any crime that carries a domestic abuse aggravator, which includes offences under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018. Data on people prosecuted and convicted in Scottish criminal courts are presented in the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistical bulletin. The most recent available version covers the financial years 2012-13 to 2021-22. People convicted where the main charge carried a domestic abuse aggravation and the main penalty was an absolute discharge are shown in the following table for the most recent five years for which data are available.
2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 1 | 2021-22 1 |
157 | 131 | 108 | 78 | 131 |
1. Data for 2020-21 and 2021-22 were affected by the pandemic and subsequent court closures, reduced court capacities and delayed cases where key participants tested positive for COVID-19. Volumes for these years should be treated with caution and not considered indicative of longer term trends.