Data and Methodology

How to access background or source data

The data collected for this statistical bulletin:

☐ are available in more detail through statistics.gov.scot.

☒ some limited additional information may be made available on request, subject to consideration of legal and ethical factors. Please contact statistics.enquiries@gov.scot for further information.

☒ detailed information cannot be made available by Scottish Government for further analysis as Scottish Government is not the data controller.

Data Sources

Since 2020-21 the Accredited Official Statistics on Recorded Crime in Scotland have been produced using data extracted from a single Police Scotland IT system called the Source for Evidence Based Policing (SEBP), which was created in 2019.

A technical review on the impact of changing from the previous IT system to SEBP, found strong alignment between both administrative systems for recorded crime in 2020-21. Further information on this is available in Annex 3 of the Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2020-21 bulletin.

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 redesignated 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. As such it is important for Accredited Official Statistics purposes that data is extracted at a similar point in time each year, to allow comparisons of any trends to be on a like-for-like basis.

The figures provided in this bulletin for the year ending June 2024 were extracted in July 2024.  Data for the preceeding two years ending June 2022 and 2023 were also extracted at the equivalent time (July 2022 and 2023), whilst the two earlier years ending June 2020 and June 2021 were extracted retrospectively to reflect the position as it would have been at July in each of those two years.This ensures a like-for-like comparison can be carried out, as discussed above.

Please note for year ending June 2024 we are unable to present offences recorded by police at local authority level. This is due to a temporary issue in allocating location values to a small proportion (around 7%)  of the recorded offences. It is anticipated that this issue will be resolved in the near future and should not affect subsequent publications.  

Amendments to the recording of Crimes and offences over the past five years

Users should note that some changes have been made to the recording of crimes and offences over the five years up to year ending June 2024. Most often this reflects the enactment of new legislation passed by either the Scottish or UK Parliaments, which can create new criminal offences or amend the existing approach to recording some types of criminal activity. Other changes reflect decisions taken by the Scottish Crime Recording Board. These include:

• A procedural change made to the recording of international crime, from 1 April 2020;
• The Coronavirus Act 2020 and Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions) (Scotland) Regulations 2020, implemented on 25 March and 27 March 2020, respectively;
• The implementation of the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted goods and services) (Scotland) Act 2021, which came into effect on 24 August 2021;
• The enactment of various sections of the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 in June 2022 and March 2023;
• The implementation of Section 184 of the Online Safety Act 2023, which came into effect on 30 January 2023;
• The implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, which came into effect on 1 April 2024.

The implementation of the Protection of Workers Act did not change the volume of crime being recorded. Prior to this, any assault of a retail worker would have been recorded as either a Common or Serious assault. From 24 August 2021 such cases are now recorded as either Common or Serious assault of a retail worker (with the same changes for threatening and abusive behaviour towards retail workers).

The other amendments did result in changes to the number of crimes being recorded within these statistics, following their implementation – most notably the 4,693 crimes recorded under Coronavirus related legislation in year ending June 2020, which increased to 20,146 in year ending June 2021, then reduced to 96 crimes in year ending June 2022 and further reduced to zero crimes in years ending June 2023 and June 2024.

Where statistics have been impacted by the above changes, this has been highlighted within the bulletin. More detailed information, including for changes prior to the five years presented below, is available in the recorded crime User Guide.

Comparisons with England & Wales and Northern Ireland

For further background information (e.g. classification of Crimes and Offences and comparisons with England & Wales and Northern Ireland) please see the Recorded Crime in Scotland User Guide.