Justice groups have warned that appropriate funding and resources need to be put in place under plans to cut the use of short-term prison sentences.

The Scottish Government is proposing to restrict jail terms of less than 12 months in a bid to reduce ineffective short sentences which carry a high rate of reoffending.

Ministers have published a parliamentary order to extend the current Presumption Against Shorter Sentences (PASS) from three months to twelve, with the extension due to come into force this summer subject to approval.

However, research suggests that - while the PASS extension is largely welcomed - it will result in more people receiving community sentences, requiring support from social work, health and other justice agencies, as well as voluntary organisations.

The research from Community Justice Scotland (CJS) also shows that the extra people completing sentences such as Community Payback Orders (CPOs) are more likely to have additional complex needs such as addictions and mental health issues - requiring even more support.

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) said the extension of PASS needs to be adequately funded to ensure success.

Councillor Kelly Parry, COSLA Community Wellbeing Spokeswoman, said: “COSLA supports the proposed extension of the presumption against short term sentences (PASS), albeit it will be important that the extension is adequately funded to enable local authorities to effectively meet the needs of individual offenders to reduce the risk of re-offending.

“An anticipated increase in the use of orders with the extension of PASS would likely require additional staff resources across local authorities.”

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In its research, CJS also said that a failure to offer offenders appropriate support “would carry a danger of setting them up to fail” and risk CPO breaches.

Samantha Whipp, improvement lead for CJS, argued that, while it is difficult to say what the exact impact of the extension will be, there needs to be "more careful consideration" of the support required.

CJS policy developer Rose McConnachie added: "PASS is the right thing to happen, but for it to be successful, everybody needs to work together to coordinate and make sure that the support is where it needs to be and the services are in place."

The initial PASS for sentences of three months or less was introduced as part of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 and requires  courts not to impose the short jail terms unless it considers that no other sentence is appropriate.

Extending PASS to 12 months will mean it is introduced in all cases before Scotland's summary courts.

Previous research has shown that people who receive shorter sentences have the highest level of reoffending.

Short jail terms are also expensive and can often contribute to people losing their homes, employment, family relationships and financial stability - all of which make it harder for them to avoid reoffending.

The CJS research, which looked at the needs of people receiving short jail terms compared to those receiving a community sentence, showed that even a low switch rate from prison to the community could result in a "noticeable increase" of around 1300 community sentences.

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The Criminal Justice Voluntary Sector Forum, which represents not-for-profit justice organisations, said they expect to have to pick up some of the additional work "given that criminal justice social workers are already considerably stretched".

A forum spokesman claimed the sector has experienced a lot of defunding in recent years and called for a review of the impact of the extension on the groups its represents.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "We are investing £9.5 million a year more on community justice services such as community sentences and electronic monitoring compared to 2015-16 – having protected ring-fenced funding of more than £100 million for Justice Social Work in 2019-20.

“The uptake of community sentences following the reforms will continue to be monitored closely and funding will take account of changes in workload, along with other factors affecting local need through the funding formula agreed with COSLA.”

He added that local authorities have also been given additional funding to prepare for the extension.