Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2014-15

Annex 4: Stakeholder Consultation on Recorded Crime Statistics

6.34. From April-June 2015, Justice Analytical Services conducted a consultation of stakeholders and users of the suite of publications based on returns from Police Scotland, which includes the Recorded Crime in Scotland statistical bulletin series. The main objectives of this consultation were to: understand who the users are, what their requirements for data are and the benefits of any new suggested structure and content; guide the future strategy for how, when and what we publish regarding police data; and identify improvements that will ease and increase the use of police data in the future.

6.35. Reflecting our commitment to user engagement and to establishing a broad evidence base to inform our future publications, we used a variety of consultation methods to capture the views of both expert and non-expert users. This included one-to-one interviews, user group discussions, social media interaction and written surveys.

6.36. A report on the results of the consultation can be found at the link below: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/scotstatcrime/StakeCon/RCUC2015.

6.37. Justice Analytical Services has reflected on the feedback received from the consultation during the production of this bulletin. This includes the addition of new graphics to highlight the main points conveyed by these statistics.

6.38. This consultation builds on previous and on-going engagement around crime statistics, including:

• a user event held in October 2014. Further details, including a summary of the feedback following the event, can be found at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/scotstatcrime.
• a user consultation via online survey, which was open from April-May 2014. Further details, including the results of the consultation, can be found at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/scotstatcrime/StakeCon/RCUC2014.

6.39. We always welcome feedback on the content of our statistical bulletins and users are welcome to submit their comments to: justiceanalysts@gov.scot.

If you would like to be kept informed about developments in crime statistics, we suggest registering with ScotStat: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/scotstat.