Recorded Crime in Scotland: May 2021

Changes in levels of recorded fraud

Fraud was 7% higher (or 108 crimes) in May 2021 than in May 2020, and 85% higher (or 712 crimes) than in May 2019. Further to the note of caution provided in the introduction to these statistics, there are two reasons why some care is advised before attributing all of this change to the specific circumstances of the COVID-related lockdown.

The first is that the Recorded Crime National Statistics have highlighted an increasing trend in recorded fraud over a number of years (up 73% between 2014-15 and 2019-20), which may be continuing. The second is that a procedural change was made in April 2020 to how some crimes of fraud (and other types of crime which could involve a victim and a perpetrator in different physical locations) are recorded. This is likely to have had an impact when comparing figures for fraud which fall before and after the April 2020 change.

Prior to the 1^st April 2020, these statistics excluded any crime with a victim in Scotland and a perpetrator who was confirmed by the police to be outside the United Kingdom when the crime took place. Following a recommendation by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspectorate for Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) to review recording practice in this area^[1], the Scottish Crime Recording Board approved a change so that from the 1^st April these crimes are now included in the statistics. It should be noted that those cases with only a suspicion or insufficient evidence to confirm that the perpetrator was outside the UK were always included.

This change is likely to have led to additional crimes of fraud being recorded, with a similar impact possible for other types of crime which could be committed using digital technologies. At this early stage we are unable to say to what extent this procedural change has increased levels of recorded fraud, though the 2020-21 National Statistics (to be published in September 2021) will provide users with an estimate of the number of additional crimes that were recorded as a result of this change.