Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2013-14

Annex 9: Future considerations

4.52 As stated in Annex 3, it has been the case with data in previous years, that data from the police are considered to be snapshot and are not revised unless errors are identified which we are committed to correcting. This has always been the case since the publication of the statistical bulletin series began and the policy of non-revising data is due to the burden it would have placed on the eight legacy forces to resubmit data each year. However, the implementation of the Scottish Operational Management Information System (ScOMIS) in Police Scotland provides an opportunity to reassess whether a revisions policy should be put in place.

The feasibility of amending the revisions policy and any potential impact on the statistics will be considered for future publications. We will therefore seek to consult users to obtain their views on this in due course.

4.53 At present, legacy police force systems are still in place for the recording of incidents and crimes. Police Scotland are working on the development of a single crime recording system which when available, may open up the potential for more individual level crime data to be available. This is something which many of our users have shown an interest in the past. At present, we are restricted to the level of analysis which we can carry out on the data since it is held at an aggregate level. Access to more detailed information would allow us to undertake more detailed analyses and this is something we are currently taking forward with Police Scotland. We will consult with users of the statistics in due course as appropriate.

4.54 Consideration is also being given to the way users can access data. The tables which accompany this bulletin provide users with access to more data at a local authority level for the first time. Consideration is also being given to Open Data.

However, we are always keen to hear users' views on the our products. If you have any comments or suggestions on how you would like to access information, please contact us at justiceanalysts@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.