Justice Services

We are responsible for providing justice services for people resident in the council area. These include assessing the risk and circumstances of people who are currently in the justice system, either in our community or in custody.

Core services include:

  • assessment reports such as Court Reports and Home Circumstances Reports, which contribute to the decisions made by the Courts and the Parole Board as to whether someone who has committed an offence is able to remain in or return to the community
  • supervision and monitoring of those people placed on a range of court and post-release orders and licences, all of which are intended to reduce both risk of re-offending and risk of harmful behaviour towards others
  • provision of unpaid work opportunities for people otherwise at risk of custody.

Justice Services are responsible for the management of Community Payback Orders. If you have a possible project to be carried out by our service users as part of their Community Payback, please use our Community Payback Work Request Form (opens new window).

In order to achieve these aims, staff in Justice Services work closely with other organisations. These include other areas of the council's social work services, such as Children and Families teams and services for people with mental health problems, housing providers, health services, Police Scotland and other partners in the justice system.

The number of services run by Social Policy's Justice Service has increased dramatically in the past twenty years. W ...
The assessment and management of risk of re-offending and risk of harm is a key responsibility for Justice Service. ...
The Prison-based Social Work team is employed by West Lothian Council to provide a social work service to prisoners ...
West Lothian Criminal & Youth Justice Service assists the courts in a range of ways in the use of Bail. Here we expl ...
The Youth Justice Team in West Lothian works with young people aged 8-21 years old who offend. This includes young p ...
The 'Community Payback Order' (CPO) replaces the former sentences of Probation, Community Service and Supervised Att ...
West Lothian Criminal and Youth Justice Service currently operates five different types of unpaid work order: Commu ...
Court reports are an important means of helping the courts in making decisions about sentencing. We explain what the ...
Location of West Lothian courts, role of Court social work staff and other agencies in court.
West Lothian Council is responsible for the supervision of offenders who are in prison (on statutory Throughcare) or ...
The Diversion from Prosecution Scheme involves joint working between the Procurator Fiscal (PF) and the Criminal & Y ...
A Drug Testing and Treatment Order (DTTO) is a court order that is aimed at assisting offenders to reduce their drug ...
Scottish courts use fines and compensation orders more than any other sentence. The Criminal & Youth Justice Service ...
A Restriction of Liberty Order is a court order that requires a person to remain within their home at times specifie ...
Imprisonment of a family member can have a negative impact on family life and can lead problems with money and manag ...
How the Criminal & Youth Justice Service works with the issues of confidentiality, communication, consultation and c ...
News about our services, and developments in the way we do our work.