Domestic abuse: statistics recorded by the police in Scotland - 2021/22

4. Future developments

4.1. Review of administrative data source

We previously informed users of work to assess the suitability of different sources of data within Police Scotland on domestic abuse-related activity, to determine what the optimal source of information may be going forward for the production of these statistics. However, due to COVID-19 this work was postponed.

Following further discussion with Police Scotland, we have decided to continue using the iVPD as the source of these statistics, whilst other database developments take place. However it should be noted that as outlined in Section 2.7, the proportion of incidents where an 'Unknown' relationship has been recorded within the iVPD has been gradually increasing since 2016-17 (and stood at 18% by 2021-22). This demonstrates the benefits of keeping the methodology for the production of these official statistics under review, to determine if any future changes in approach would add additional value.

We will inform users of any new developments within the next bulletin on domestic abuse incidents in 2022-23 (and through the ScotStat network beforehand).

4.2. Users of these statistics

These statistics are used by a range of stakeholders within central government, the police and other public bodies for a variety of purposes.

Domestic abuse statistics are also used by a variety of external stakeholders, including victim support groups, national and local journalism, academics and students and school pupils writing dissertations and carrying out projects.

Official statistics are a tool used in decision making both inside and outside government, and for this tool to be effective it has to be designed to meet the needs of users. We always welcome feedback on the content and the uses made of our statistical bulletins and users are invited to submit their comments and any suggestions for improvement to: Justice_Analysts@gov.scot.