MORE than 24,000 community payback orders (CPOs) have been breached in the past nine years, new figures show, with almost 7,000 people being sent to jail as a result.

A freedom of information request from the Scottish Conservatives revealed that some 24,181 community payback orders were breached between 2012-13 and 2020-21.

Of those, 6,777 offenders had a custodial sentence imposed, while 6,562 were given another community payback order.

The figures described 6,317 breaches being met with an “other outcome”, the definition of which was not given, while 1,725 breaches were punished by the use of an “other penalty”, which was also not defined.

Some 1,390 breaches resulted in a fine, while the outcomes of 1,410 were not known.

Community payback orders are imposed by judges after someone is convicted of a crime, but fall short of imprisonment and can see an offender take on unpaid work or provide services.

The freedom of information request published by the Tories did not ask for the total number of CPOs given out during this time, but a report from Community Justice Scotland earlier this year published the number of total CPOs stretching back to 2016-17.

In 2016-17, some 19,200 CPOs were issued, 16.7% of which were breached, while 17.9% of the 17,882 orders in 2017-18 were breached.

Some 18.9% of the 16,468 orders issued in 2018-19 were breached, while 15.9% of those handed down in 2019-20 resulted in a breach.

In 2020-21, just 8,169 orders were given out, 13.3% of which were breached by offenders.

These figures mean 16.9% of orders made between 2016-17 and 2020-21 were violated.

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Jamie Greene said the total figure is “eye-watering”.

He added: “These people have already been convicted of crimes, often very serious, but their punishment for a breach in the SNP’s soft-touch justice system is frequently an unspecified penalty which they have refused to give details of.

“Even worse, thousands of criminals’ punishment for breaching their community sentences is to be given yet another community order – with fewer than a third given a jail sentence. That makes a complete mockery of our justice system.

“The justice system must be more transparent, and the SNP could start by publishing the reasons these criminals were deemed to have breached their community sentence.

“The SNP’s justice system must take a tougher approach towards these criminals who breach the terms of their community sentences.

“Ministers should reverse their effective ban on short sentences, which is clearly contributing to the rise in offenders avoiding jail for such breaches.”

Justice Secretary Keith Brown said:“It is up to the independent sentencing judge to decide the most appropriate outcome where breach proceedings are heard, based on all of the circumstances of the case.

“Our firm focus remains on prevention, effective community interventions and rehabilitation, both in communities and a custody setting. Our evidence shows this is working with reconviction rates at one of the lowest levels since comparable records began.

“The latest figures show recorded crime is at the lowest level seen since 1974, and down 43% since 2006-07. This is welcome as it means that every year there are thousands fewer victims in Scotland than there were 15 years ago.”