Almost 10,000 hours of community service work for offenders have been written off in Dumfries and Galloway this year due to the pandemic.
Strict lockdown restrictions meant that many of the unpaid work group activities usually carried out by criminals had to be cancelled.
The Scottish Government ordered councils to reduce unpaid work orders by 35 percent – excluding those imposed for sex offences, stalking or domestic violence – as part of coronavirus legislation.
A report produced for the Dumfries and Galloway’s social work committee next Thursday reads: “As a consequence of the reduction, the number of hours of unpaid work which were written off was 9,710.
“This was less than the initial estimate due to the number of orders which were subject to the exemption.”
Face-to-face community service work resumed on April 26, however it was still necessary to limit group numbers to three and minimise activities to try and prevent spreading the virus.
The council report states: “This remained the position until Dumfries and Galloway moved to level zero on August 6, when we were able to increase, where appropriate, group sizes back to five.
“Screens continued to be used within unpaid work vehicles, hence limiting the numbers we could transport, until guidance from the council’s fleet services allowed for their removal at the end of August 2021.”
With their options limited, the council’s justice social work team came up with a new programme of community service.
This included other rehabilitation activities including online learning courses and connecting with third sector support agencies.
However, it was recently revealed that they also contributed to the Covid recovery.
Men and women were put to work at vaccination centres, helped out at foodbanks, or got involved in the community response to Covid in other ways as part of their rehabilitation programme.
