Recorded crime in Scotland: 2016-2017

7. Annexes

Annex 1: Data Sources and Definitions

Data collection:

7.1. The detailed classification of crimes and offences used by The Scottish Government to collect criminal statistics contains about 477 codes. These are grouped in the bulletin as shown in Chapter 8. Further information on crime codes can be found in the User Guide to Recorded Crime Statistics in Scotland, available via the following link:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubRecordedCrime/UserGuide.

7.2. The statistical return from which most of the figures in this bulletin are taken is a simple count of the numbers of crimes and offences, for each local authority, which the police have recorded and cleared up. Returns of quarterly data are submitted by Police Scotland and are used to produce a national total.

7.3. Amendments to crime and offence records will always arise after data has been submitted by Police Scotland to the Scottish Government. Some crime or offence records may, on further investigation by the police, be re-designated to not constitute a crime or offence (a process known as 'no-criming'). In other cases the original crime or offence may be re-classified, which could shift the record between different crime or offence groups (for example if a common assault was found on further investigation to be a serious assault it would switch from Group 6 Miscellaneous Offences to Group 1 Non-sexual Crimes of Violence).

7.4. Following the implementation of the Scottish Operational Management Information System ( ScOMIS) in Police Scotland, each quarterly submission of data to the Scottish Government contains revisions back to quarter 1 of the 2013-14 reporting year, reflecting the amendments described above. To assess the extent of these amendments, we have compared the crime and offence data published for 2015-16 (which was submitted to the Scottish Government in April 2016) with what ScOMIS reported for the same period one year later (April 2017). Table 12 shows the results of this exercise.

As with our analysis in previous bulletins, this comparison confirms that the extent of further amendment to police crime and offence records following the original submission of data continues to be minimal at Scotland level. This gives users confidence that the published statistics for 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 still provide a sufficiently accurate measure of the extent of police recorded crimes and offences. On a proportional basis the biggest impact is on Group 5 Other Crime, where a net 625 fewer crimes have been recorded following no-criming and reclassification between crime groups . This has reduced the number of Other Crimes by 1.1% from 59,180 to 58,555.

Table 12: Revisions of crimes recorded by the police, Scotland, 2015-16

Percentage
Local authority area	Non-sexual crimes of violence	Sexual crimes	Crimes of dishonesty	Fire-raising, vandalism, etc.	Other crimes	Total crimes	Miscellaneous offences
Aberdeen City	79.1	65.9	42.3	26.7	96.2	54.0	79.5
Aberdeenshire	86.3	67.9	43.8	23.1	94.5	54.2	74.8
Angus	72.7	65.5	40.6	36.9	93.3	53.0	81.3
Argyll & Bute	92.2	62.8	37.7	24.1	97.3	55.4	82.8
Clackmannanshire	88.3	55.1	51.3	26.7	95.0	55.4	76.8
Dumfries & Galloway	80.9	76.5	45.0	38.1	93.4	61.4	84.8
Dundee City	79.6	66.5	43.5	25.8	88.8	51.3	80.7
East Ayrshire	95.8	64.9	42.3	26.7	93.3	53.5	84.9
East Dunbartonshire	70.9	48.2	30.7	19.5	90.3	41.6	76.1
East Lothian	77.1	58.1	39.9	22.3	98.8	46.9	76.7
East Renfrewshire	83.6	63.2	28.2	13.5	91.7	42.0	67.9
Edinburgh, City of	65.8	50.7	25.8	16.9	95.7	35.4	63.0
Falkirk	86.8	61.6	46.5	33.1	98.7	57.6	78.0
Fife	85.4	69.0	48.2	35.4	97.9	57.5	85.7
Glasgow City	69.1	55.9	32.1	20.8	92.5	47.7	81.2
Highland	78.9	73.5	44.8	36.0	103.4	61.9	85.7
Inverclyde	71.3	69.0	38.4	14.8	90.9	51.9	83.4
Midlothian	83.7	57.3	37.1	19.7	97.1	45.7	79.5
Moray	86.0	55.7	47.5	36.1	98.5	59.4	78.4
Na h-Eileanan Siar	92.9	53.8	54.1	48.8	115.2	71.4	89.5
North Ayrshire	82.9	55.8	37.2	22.0	93.2	47.7	82.4
North Lanarkshire	79.4	52.9	33.5	23.8	96.9	48.5	83.9
Orkney Islands	100.0	61.3	53.7	52.1	115.8	67.0	85.6
Perth & Kinross	82.7	69.5	39.9	29.6	93.6	55.8	84.8
Renfrewshire	83.3	59.6	41.8	24.0	95.2	57.1	84.9
Scottish Borders	80.6	64.8	37.7	29.7	97.3	50.7	77.7
Shetland Islands	145.5	77.3	64.8	43.0	116.8	83.7	93.3
South Ayrshire	87.3	67.2	52.0	31.0	94.1	58.9	85.1
South Lanarkshire	73.0	61.6	34.8	20.8	97.6	48.9	84.3
Stirling	84.7	77.5	44.1	30.5	101.1	58.8	79.4
West Dunbartonshire	76.8	55.2	46.1	25.3	95.9	56.8	84.8
West Lothian	77.7	68.5	32.8	25.2	96.4	46.8	76.2
SCOTLAND	77.1	62.3	36.7	25.1	95.3	50.0	80.2

7.5. We will continue to repeat this exercise annually, as a quality assurance exercise, to confirm that further amendments remain minimal. Despite the fact that only a very small proportion of records are amended following their original submission to the Scottish Government, it is important for National Statistics purposes that time series comparisons between 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 are on a like-for-like basis. As such the 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 data used in this bulletin remains that which was submitted in April 2014, April 2015 and April 2016 respectively ^[17] , to ensure this is consistent with the timetable being followed for the submission of data for 2016-17 (i.e. the same amount of time has elapsed for amendments to records for the four reporting years based on ScOMIS).

7.6. This analysis demonstrates that a more up-to-date set of figures are available from ScOMIS for 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 than is included in this National Statistics publication. Given this, we asked the Scottish Crime Recording Board ^[18] to assess whether any amendment to our revisions policy should be made before the 2015-16 publication. In light of the minimal level of change following the original submission of data, the Board concluded in December 2015 that no changes were necessary to our revisions policy as our current approach was simple to understand and kept open the possibility of future publications coming out earlier in the year.

7.7. Information on the data source used in the Recorded Crime bulletin series and supporting metadata can be found in the Data Sources and Suitability document which is available via the following link: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/DataSource/RecordedCrimeSandS.

7.8. The main Scottish Government Statement of Administrative Sources covers all sources of administrative data used by Scottish Government statisticians. This statement can be found on the Scottish Government website at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/About/StatementAdminSources.

7.9. A separate statement of administrative source is available for Police statistics via the following link:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/AdminSources
Police.

7.10. Information is collected from the British Transport Police and the Ministry of Defence Police, but these figures have not been included in the main body of this bulletin. Thus, the following crimes and offences were recorded in addition to those referred to throughout this bulletin:

Table 13: Crimes and offences recorded by the British Transport Police and the Ministry of Defence Police, and cleared up ¹³, as a percentage of those recorded, Scotland, 2016-17

Rate per 10,000 population
Local authority area	Non-sexual crimes of violence	Sexual crimes	Crimes of dishonesty	Fire-raising, vandalism, etc.	Other crimes	Total crimes	Miscellaneous offences	Motor vehicle offences	Total offences	Total crimes and offences
Aberdeen City	17	30	323	101	136	606	331	314	645	1,252
Aberdeenshire	8	17	110	52	56	243	140	208	347	591
Angus	9	20	122	77	58	286	215	334	549	835
Argyll & Bute	6	16	82	68	77	249	233	325	558	806
Clackmannanshire	12	17	150	127	98	403	287	244	530	933
Dumfries & Galloway	10	26	131	106	126	399	263	599	861	1,260
Dundee City	18	35	296	129	122	600	330	361	690	1,291
East Ayrshire	12	12	183	114	112	434	277	217	494	928
East Dunbartonshire	8	13	144	50	49	265	136	100	236	501
East Lothian	9	15	179	84	55	343	148	95	243	586
East Renfrewshire	6	11	100	60	53	230	126	99	225	454
Edinburgh, City of	15	19	357	112	79	583	256	174	429	1,012
Falkirk	12	19	154	89	84	358	253	289	542	900
Fife	12	24	164	90	72	363	252	237	489	852
Glasgow City	25	27	346	133	183	714	542	317	860	1,574
Highland	10	24	127	77	90	328	224	451	675	1,002
Inverclyde	12	20	161	114	149	457	252	271	523	980
Midlothian	11	18	262	133	99	522	234	143	377	899
Moray	9	23	101	70	69	271	228	310	538	810
Na h-Eileanan Siar	5	14	49	32	39	140	113	271	384	525
North Ayrshire	13	16	207	116	101	452	285	183	468	920
North Lanarkshire	12	14	218	119	120	482	304	189	493	975
Orkney Islands	5	14	55	43	26	144	127	189	316	460
Perth & Kinross	11	20	135	54	79	300	159	285	445	745
Renfrewshire	15	17	175	91	138	436	332	241	573	1,009
Scottish Borders	9	14	118	71	55	267	163	171	334	600
Shetland Islands	5	9	54	37	69	175	135	301	436	611
South Ayrshire	10	15	178	77	84	364	233	247	481	845
South Lanarkshire	11	12	182	97	99	401	269	163	432	833
Stirling	9	15	156	84	99	363	227	377	604	967
West Dunbartonshire	15	17	205	119	146	502	364	308	672	1,174
West Lothian	15	23	194	97	77	406	232	188	420	826
SCOTLAND	13	20	209	97	102	442	279	256	535	976

Please see Notes for Tables at end of Chapter 6.

In 2015 Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland ( HMICS) published Crime Audit, British Transport Police, Scotland Division. HM Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland, Derek Penman, said: "The results of our audit provide clear evidence that BTP's Scotland Division crime recording processes are effective, ensuring the correct application of crime recording standards and counting rules''. Further information on the Audit is available via the following link:
http://hmics.org/publications/crime-audit-british-transport-police-scotland-division.

Data publication in Police Scotland Quarterly Management Information Reports:

7.11. In addition to the National Statistics, Police Scotland publish management information on the number of crimes and offences recorded by the police. This is presented within their Quarterly Management Information Reports, which are available from the 'Our Performance' section of Police Scotland's website:
http://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/our-performance/.

These reports are produced to demonstrate Police Scotland's commitment to transparency (alongside other regular reporting activity to the Scottish Police Authority). The information within these reports is presented on a cumulative quarterly basis, with the first quarter of a reporting year containing 3 months of data (from April to June), the second containing 6 months of data (from April to September), etc.. The reports are typically published within 2 months of the period to which they refer.

The Quarterly Management Information Reports advise users that the data they contain on recorded crime is based on the Administrative Data available to Police Scotland at that time and not the National Statistics. The annual National Statistics published by the Scottish Government on police recorded crime are based on the same source of administrative information which has undergone further quality assurance work, including additional dialogue with Police Scotland, in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Data Definitions:

7.12. In one criminal incident, several crimes or offences may occur - e.g. a house may be broken into and vandalized, and the occupants assaulted. In this example, crimes of housebreaking (which would include the vandalism) and assaults would be recorded. In multiple offence incidents, more than one offence may be counted rather than one for the incident as a whole; that is, the counting system is offence based rather than incident based. An offence may have more than one victim - for example in robberies - and be committed by more than one offender – e.g. some assaults and housebreakings (note that for murder, attempted murder and culpable homicide, the number of crimes recorded is equal to the number of victims). Thus the statistics in this bulletin are not directly comparable with statistics on action taken against offenders, as one offence may lead to several persons being charged. Equally, an offender may be charged with several offences.

7.13. In Scotland, assault is a common law offence. In order to distinguish between serious and common assaults, Police Scotland use a common definition for serious assault:

"An assault or attack in which the victim sustains injury resulting in detention in hospital as an inpatient, for the treatment of that injury, or any of the following injuries whether or not detained in hospital:

Fractures (the breaking or cracking of a bone. Note – nose is cartilage not bone, so a 'broken nose' should not be classified unless it meets one of the other criteria)

Internal injuries

Severe concussion

Lacerations requiring sutures which may lead to impairment or disfigurement

Any other injury which may lead to impairment or disfigurement."

7.14. Attempts to commit an offence are included in the statistics, in general in the same group as the substantive offence.

7.15. Housebreaking can be broken down into different building types: Dwelling, Non-dwelling and Other property. Where 'domestic dwelling' is presented in the statistics, this refers to dwellings and non‑dwellings only.

Dwelling is defined as a house which is being used for (or fit to be used for) residential purposes. Non-dwelling is defined as all roofed buildings used for domestic purposes other than dwellings (for example Garages, Garden Huts, Outhouses, etc.). Other property is defined as all roofed buildings not used for residential or domestic purposes (for example commercial premises). Further information on the different types of building included under each of these headings is available on page 258 of the Scottish Crime Recording Standard (the manual that details rules and guidance for how crimes should be recorded):
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubRecordedCrime/SCRB/SCRSmanual.