Recorded Crimes and Offences Involving Firearms, Scotland, 2020-21 and 2021-22

Annex 6: Crimes and offences cleared up

The definition of ‘cleared up’ was revised with effect from 1 April 1996. Previously, a crime or offence was regarded as being cleared up if one or more offenders was apprehended, cited, warned or traced for it. This was revised as follows:

A crime or offence is regarded as cleared up where there exists a sufficiency of evidence under Scots law, to justify consideration of criminal proceedings notwithstanding that a report is not submitted to the procurator fiscal because either:

• by standing agreement with the procurator fiscal, the police warn the accused due to the minor nature of the offence, or
• reporting is inappropriate due to the non-age of the accused, death of the accused or other similar circumstances.

For some types of crimes and offences the case may be cleared up immediately, e.g. where the offender is caught in the act. In Scots law, the confession of an accused person to a crime would not in general be sufficient to allow a prosecution to be taken, as corroborative evidence is required. Thus, a case cannot be regarded as ‘cleared up’ on the basis of a confession alone.

Clear up rates are calculated as follows:

Further details on clear up rates are available in the Recorded Crime Statistics in Scotland: user guide.