Press Release, 23rd April 2013

Community Payback?

The SNP government’s flagship scheme to ensure criminals do work in the community has come under fire as figures show that two thirds have failed to complete the work handed out to them.

Of the ninety-nine Community Payback Orders that were issued by the courts in Greenock in 2011/12 seventy had an unpaid work requirement attached.

However, figures recently published by the Scottish Government show that only 21 have so far been completed.

Local MSP Duncan McNeil has said that the news will only set to undermine victims’ faith in the justice system.

The Greenock and Inverclyde MSP said:

“The whole notion of a Community Payback Order is that criminals are meant to payback the community and victims that they have damaged. It’s shocking to find that a third of those given community payback orders were not required to carry any work in the community whatsoever, while the majority who were required to work have not completed it. Such figures only serve to let down the victims of crime and the SNP government needs to bring an end to its soft-touch justice system”

Notes to Editors

To see figures relating to community payback orders in Inverclyde click on the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/CrimeJustice/Datasets/SocialWork/CPOs

To see details of how community payback orders work click on the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/925/0110081.pdf