Statistics on driving convictions for the last 10 years: FOI release

Information requested

The number of convictions for each of the following specific offences for the last 10 years:

1. Dangerous driving.
2. Careless Driving.
3. Driving with excess blood alcohol.
4. Driving motor vehicle while unfit through drink or drugs.
5. Driving motor vehicle while under influence of controlled drug above prescribed limit (since offence introduced in 2019).
6. Failure to provide breath, blood or urine specimen at police station.

Response

The answer to your question is provided in the table below.

Number of people convicted for selected driving offences, where main crime, 2012-13 to 2021-22.

	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Total convicted	7,222	7,375	6,787	6,825	7,096	7,170	6,385	6,510	3,884	6,612
Dangerous driving offences	554	568	585	634	753	906	781	912	537	862
Driving carelessly	2,257	3,006	2,826	2,935	3,006	2,907	2,337	2,462	1,314	2,506
Driving motor vehicle while unfit through drink or drugs	242	203	203	196	239	255	315	304	146	278
Driving mv with blood alcohol content above prescribed limit	3,691	3,168	2,791	2,654	2,746	2,734	2,548	2,460	1,536	2,063
Failure to provide breath, blood or urine specimen at police station	478	430	382	406	352	368	404	368	232	370
Driving motor vehicle while under influence of controlled drug above	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	4	119	533

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.

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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