Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2021-2022

Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2021-22

This bulletin presents National Statistics on crimes and offences recorded by the police in Scotland in 2021-22. Statistics on recorded crimes and offences provide a measure of the volume of criminal activity with which the police are faced. This does not reveal the incidence of all crime committed as not all crimes are reported to the police.

This bulletin is the first edition to present crime statistics using the new set of crime and offence groups approved by the Scottish Crime Recording Board, following a public consultation of users. Responses to this consultation were published in March 2022 alongside a report outlining a package of changes to the production of Scotland’s recorded crime statistics. The changes include the introduction of a new set of crime and offence groups and categories, as well as improvements to the format and design of this annual bulletin. The largest change is the transfer of Common assault and Stalking from the Miscellaneous offences group to the Non-sexual crimes of violence group, and by extension the recorded crime total for Scotland. To maintain time series analysis, all data has been back-revised. More information on the new crime grouping structure is provided in Annex 5.

It should also be noted that the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and associated measures to limit social contact, continues to have an impact on both the type and volume of crime recorded since March 2020. A larger impact was seen during the previous year (2020-21), with this reporting year of 2021-22 also affected, albeit to a lesser extent. More information is presented in the Coronavirus restrictions crimes chapter.