Number of convictions under section 5A (1) (2) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 since 2019: FOI release

Information requested

The number of people convicted under section 5A (1) (2) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 since 2019.

Response

Number of people convicted under section 5A of the Road Traffic Act 1988, where main charge, 2018-19 to 2021-22.

	2018‐19	2019‐20	2020‐21	2021‐22
ROAD TRAFFIC ACT 1988 SECTION 5A(1)(A)	‐	3	36	213
ROAD TRAFFIC ACT 1988 SECTION 5A(1)(A)&(2)	‐	1	83	320
ROAD TRAFFIC ACT 1988 SECTION 5A(1)(B)	‐	‐	6	37
Total	‐	4	125	570

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

Data are available by financial year, with the most recent data for 2021-22. Criminal proceedings statistics report on cases which have concluded in court. This means that a crime may be recorded by the police in one year, and court proceedings may be concluded in a subsequent year. This might explain the lack of convictions and the low number of convictions in 2018-19 and 2019-20.

Where a person is proceeded against for more than one crime or offence in a single proceeding, only the main charge is counted. The main charge is the one receiving the most severe penalty (or disposal) if one or more charges are proved, and is identified using a look-up table which ranks the disposal types in order of severity.

Please note that data for 2020-21 and 2021-22 are affected by the pandemic, subsequent court closures, reduced court capacity due to physical distancing measures and delays to cases where key participants were forced to self-isolate after testing positive for COVID-19, and should not be considered indicative of long term trends.

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