Charges reported under the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012 in 2014-15

Footnotes

1. The total number of charges is taken from the most up-to-date information recorded on the COPFS case management system. This is a live system and numbers may vary from those previously published because of changes made during the course of the investigation and prosecution of a case. The research conducted last year was based on the latest information available at the time, and reported 268 charges in 2012-13 and 203 charges reported in 2013-14. The comparisons in the remainder of this report are based on the total number of charges that were analysed and included in the past reports by the Scottish Government at the time the research was carried out.

2. See: http//www.scotland.gov.uk/topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubCriminalProceedings

3. Including where charges were added as a result of expressing hatred, or stirring up hatred, against people based on their membership, or presumed membership of a religious group, a social or cultural group with a perceived religious affiliation, or a group defined by reference to colour, race, nationality (including citizenship), ethic or national origins, sexual orientation, transgender identity or disability.

4. Although this report includes charges reported during 1^st April 2014 to 31^st March 2015, incidents may have occurred before this date.

5. The affiliation may have been apparent from the accused being located in a 'home' or 'away' section of a football stadium - the accused admitting to their club affiliation, having a match ticket or item of clothing identified with their team (e.g. a scarf or replica football shirt) were means of identifying the accused's affiliation when an incident occurred somewhere other than a football ground.

6. For the purposes of this analysis, hateful references to colour, race, nationality (including citizenship), and ethnic or national origins were included as racial hatred.

7. An updated method of classification was used in 2013-14: gesturing people to fight was categorised as 'generally offensive' rather than 'gesture' as it was more closely aligned with other charges that were classified as generally offensive. Therefore the generally offensive and gesture categories noted in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 are not directly comparable with 2012-13.

8. The period of analysis is 01/04/14 to 30/03/15. Five offences took place prior to this period and is included because it was reported within the period of analysis (and were therefore not captured in the 2013-14 report).

9. See: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubCriminalProceedings

10. The total number of charges is taken form the most up-to-date information recorded on the COPFS case management system. This is a live system and the number of totals may vary from those previously published due to changes made during the course of investigation and prosecution of a case. The research conducted last year was based on the latest information at the time, and reported 9 in 2013-14.