Introduction

This quarterly Accredited Official Statistics bulletin presents information on the number of crimes and offences recorded by the police in Scotland for the year ending June 2024. The statistics cover a rolling 12-months of activity, up to the end of the latest quarter, and include a comparison with the equivalent four previous years. Quarterly statistics bulletins were introduced to inform users about the volume and type of crimes and offences recorded in Scotland on a more frequent basis than the existing annual Recorded Crime in Scotland Accredited Official Statistics.

The latest annual Recorded Crime in Scotland bulletin, covering the 2023-24 reporting year, was published on 25 June 2024. Users should refer to the annual Accredited Official Statistics for longer term time series analysis, statistics on cyber-crimes and clear-up rates, and more detailed contextual information regarding the production of the recorded crime statistics - including governance arrangements, a description of their quality, background methodologies and changes to recording practice.

Statistics on crimes and offences recorded by the police provide a measure of the volume of criminal activity with which the police are faced. Crimes recorded by the police do not reveal the incidence of all crimes committed as not all crimes are reported to the police. The other main source of crime statistics in Scotland is the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS), a national survey of adults (aged 16 and over) living in private households, which asks respondents about their experiences and perceptions of crime.

Information on the crime grouping structure is available in the 2023-24 Accredited Official Statistics bulletin.

An Accredited Official Statistics Publication for Scotland

 These statistics are accredited official statistics. The Office for Statistics Regulation has independently reviewed and accredited these statistics as complying with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

These statistics were accredited in September 2016. The accreditation notice is available to view on the OSR website.

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

More information about Scottish Government statistics is available on the Scottish Government website.