On 28/10/21 the Scottish Sentencing Council published a report entitled, 'Judicial Perspectives on Community-Based Disposals', drawing on research and engagement carried out with sentencers and others. One of its more significant findings was that “that one of the greatest challenges to judicial confidence in community-based disposals concerns limitations of resources to support their management and delivery”, rather than lack of awareness of available services and programmes.

On 15 July 2021, Audit Scotland published its Community Justice Sustainable Alternatives to Custody report. Amongst its findings it was noted that there had not been a shift towards non-custodial sentences and that there was a lack of effectiveness data. It also showed enormous geographic variation in the use of non-custodial sentences, which strongly suggested that this was a result of individual sentencers' decision-making.