On 09/11/21 2021, the Scottish Sentencing Council’s guideline on the sentencing of young people was approved by the High Court. It came into force on 26 January 2022 and sets out various factors which should be taken into account when sentencing a young person up to the age of 25. It’s based upon research into how young people develop physically and psychologically, and into the differences between young people and older people.

On 04/10/21 the latest Reconviction Statistics for the 2018-19 offender cohort   were published. The figures showed that reconvictions had increased in the past year from 26.4% in 2017-18, to 28.3% in 2018-19, going against the general downwards trend over the past decade. The average number of reconvictions also increased over the same period from 0.47 to 0.50, an increase of 6%.