Public Performance Reporting

Criminal Justice

Fishing boats, Girvan. Photo by Steven Clark, Ayr CollegeBy law, we must provide social work services to the Criminal Justice System including:

  • Preparing reports on offenders for court use.
  • Supervising offenders who are on orders of court such as Probation, Community Service, Supervised Attendance, Drug Treatment and Testing.
  • Supervising ex-prisoners who have been released on licence.

Last year our Criminal Justice section prepared 840 social enquiry reports and submitted 250 reports to courts, which was a slight increase on the previous year.

Community supervision helps to prevent re-offending, or in the case of community service, to ensure offenders do unpaid work for the community. Last year we received 112 Community Service Orders, those offenders undertook 77 domestic gardening projects, 42 domestic decorating projects, maintained 10 miles of River Ayr Walkway and regularly assisted 3 local voluntary organisations.

People have to be returned to court because they have failed to comply with supervision or have committed a further offence. Last year we returned 116 offenders who were imprisoned, but most people successfully complete their orders.

We have introduced Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements and work in partnership with Strathclyde Police, Scottish Prison Service and others to manage the small number of offenders who present the highest risks to our communities.

We work closely with the other Ayrshire councils, sharing numerous services and resources with them. We are also a statutory partner within the South West Scotland Community Justice Authority, which aims to reduce re-offending in Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway.