Community Payback Order (CPO)
The Community Payback Order (CPO) was introduced by the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 and can only be imposed in respect of offence(s) committed on or after 1 February 2011. The CPO replaces provisions for community service orders, probation orders and supervised attendance orders, and the former community reparation order.
A CPO can consist of one or more of nine requirements including offender supervision, compensation, unpaid work or other activity, mental health treatment, drug treatment and alcohol treatment. Every order must contain either an unpaid work or other activity requirement or an offender supervision requirement, or both.
The most recent data shows that in 2022/23 there were 12,632 CPOs commenced in Scotland. You can find more information here.
In March 2025, Community Justice Scotland published the seventh Summary of Local Authority Annual Reports on Community Payback Orders, covering the period 2023/24. You can find the report here.