Road Traffic Act criminal proceedings statistics: FOI release

Information requested

For the years 2018 -2021 inclusive could you please provide information on:

a) The number of offences recorded by the police?
b) The number offences proceeded to court?
c) The outcome in court?
d) The penalties?

For each of the following offences:
1. Section 1 of the Road Traffic Act - Causing death by dangerous driving.
2. Section 2B of the Road Traffic Act - Causing death by careless driving.
3. Section 3A of the Road Traffic Act - Causing death by careless driving when under the influence of drink or drugs.
4. Section 3ZB of the Road Traffic Act - Causing death whilst driving uninsured, disqualified or with no license.

Response

a). In terms of offences recorded by the police, the data received from Police Scotland for producing the National Statistics on Recorded Crime, is a simple count of the number of crimes and offences, for each local authority, which the police have recorded and cleared up.

The nature of this data is such that while some crime codes refer to a single act or section of legislation, others include a wider range of legislation. As such we are unable to provide data under Section 1 or Section 3ZB of the Road Traffic Act 1988 specifically. However, we have provided the data we do hold and an explanation of how this may differ from your request.

(i) Causing death by dangerous driving – this crime code covers Road Traffic Act section 1, it also includes charges relating to section 1 and 1A combined and section 1 and 2 combined.
(ii) Causing death by careless driving – this crime code covers Road Traffic Act section 2B only.
(iii) Death by careless driving when under influence drink or drug - this crime code covers Road Traffic Act section 3A only.
(iv) Illegal driver involved in fatal accident – this covers Road Traffic Act section 3ZB, but also includes section 3ZC.

	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
(i) Causing death by dangerous driving	19	30	37	26	25
(ii) Causing death by careless driving	17	10	15	11	5
(iii) Death by careless driving when under influence drink or drug	0	1	1	0	2
(iv) Illegal driver involved in fatal accident	3	2	2	2	2

Source: Recorded Crime statistics 2021/22

b). c). d). Most of the court proceedings information you have requested is available from the Drink and Careless Driving Tables 2020-21 published alongside the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland: 2020-21 bulletin available at Supporting documents - Criminal proceedings in Scotland: 2020-2021 - gov.scot(www.gov.scot). These tables contain data on people proceeded against in Scottish Courts, where the main charge related to crimes of Causing Death by dangerous driving, Causing death by careless driving and Causing death by careless driving when under influence of drink/drugs.

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Charges related to Section 3ZB of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (Causing death by driving: unlicensed or uninsured drivers) are typically prosecuted as secondary charges (rather than main charges). The table below shows the number of offences prosecuted under Section 3ZB of the Road Traffic Act 1988.

	2017- 18	2018-19	2019-20
Total offences prosecuted	1	3	2
Not Guilty	-	-	1
Guilty	1	3	1

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database

Please note: care should be taken when comparing different data sources relating to the criminal justice system. A crime can only be recorded if it is reported to the police and can only then be prosecuted in court if the crime is reported to the procurator fiscal and a decision taken that court proceedings are the most appropriate course of action. In addition, recorded crime statistics count crimes and offences at the time that they came to the attention of Police Scotland, while criminal proceedings statistics report on cases once they have concluded in court. This means that a crime may be recorded by the police in one year and court proceedings concluded in a subsequent year. In addition, a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime, or a set of crimes with more than one victim, in a proceeding, but only a single conviction for the ‘main charge’ (the one receiving the most severe sentence) would be counted in the court proceedings statistics. There is also the possibility that the crime recorded by the police may be altered in the course of judicial proceedings.

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The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.