Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2013-14

Annex 7: Comparisons with England and Wales and Northern Ireland

4.37 Recorded crime statistics for England and Wales are not directly comparable with those in Scotland. The recorded crime statistics for Scotland are collected on the basis of the Scottish Crime Recording Standard, which was introduced in 2004. Like its counterpart in England and Wales, it aims to give consistency in crime recording.

The main principles of the Scottish Crime Recording Standard itself are similar to the National Crime Recording Standard for England/Wales with regard to when a crime should be recorded. However there are various differences between the respective Counting Rules in that they specify different approaches for counting the number of crimes that should be recorded as a result of a single incident.

For example, crimes recorded in England and Wales tend to be incident based where the Principle Crime Rule states that if the sequence of crimes in an incident, or a complex crime, contains more than one type of crime, then the most serious crime should be counted. For example, an incident where an intruder breaks into a home and assaults the sole occupant would be recorded as two crimes in Scotland, while in England and Wales it would be recorded as one crime.

4.38 Differences in legislation and common law have also to be taken into account when comparing the crime statistics for England/Wales and Scotland.

4.39 Crime Statistics for England and Wales are published quarterly on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website.

4.40 The legal system in Northern Ireland is based on that of England and Wales and the Police Service for Northern Ireland (PSNI) has the same notifiable offence list for recorded crime as used in England and Wales. In addition, the PSNI has adopted the NCRS and Home Office Counting Rules for recorded crime that applies in England and Wales. Thus there are similar comparability considerations between recorded crime statistics for Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Crime statistics for Northern Ireland are collected and published separately. The latest police recorded crime data for Northern Ireland can be accessed here: http://www.psni.police.uk/index/updates/updates_statistics.htm.

4.41 Further detail on the comparability of crime data can be found in the User Guide to Recorded Crime Statistics in Scotland, available via the following link: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubRecordedCrime/UserGuide