Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2021-2022

Coronavirus restrictions crimes

The enactment of the Coronavirus Act 2020 and Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 (implemented on 25 March and 27 March 2020 respectively) led to new and additional crimes being recorded within these statistics since 2019-20. For example, this includes cases where someone had left the place they were living during lockdown, did not have a reasonable excuse for this when asked by a police officer, and failed to comply with police advice or instruction to return there. Further legislation in respect of local travel restrictions came in to force on 2 November 2020.

Given the rapid pace of these changes, Police Scotland have used a bespoke data collection to capture information on the number of new crimes recorded under Coronavirus related legislation.

Whilst many incidents will have been dealt with by police without the need for enforcement, 3,913 Coronavirus restrictions crimes were recorded in 2021-22, accounting for 1% of all crime recorded in Scotland this year. This compares to 20,976 equivalent crimes recorded in 2020-21.

The national rate of recorded Coronavirus restriction crimes was 7 per 10,000 population in 2021-22, lower than the rate in 2021-22, at 38 per 10,000. The highest rates were in Glasgow City (24 per 10,000 population) and inWest Dunbartonshire (21 per 10,000 population). It should be noted that crimes are recorded in terms of where they occur and not the home residency of the perpetrator (where the two places are different locations).