Serious Organised Crime strategy

How will we know if we are succeeding?

While some aspects of our work to tackle serious organised crime are simple to measure, others can be more difficult to evaluate. For example it is straightforward for us to report:

• on the arrest, conviction and imprisonment of serious organised criminals.
• on the number of people charged and convicted under Sections 28 to 31 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010.
• on the number of detections for drugs supply, production and cultivation in line with the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
• the value of assets recovered using Proceeds of Crime legislation, the value of assets restrained, the value of cash seizures and the value of drugs and counterfeit goods seized.
• and on the use of Serious Crime Prevention Orders, or human trafficking and exploitation orders (prevention orders and risk orders).

We can use surveys to understand public attitudes to the products of serious organised crime (counterfeit goods and drugs) and changes in those attitudes over time or to measure awareness of serious organised crime in different sectors. We can draw on data on recreational and problem drug use, while recognising the multiplicity of factors at play here.

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of activity to disrupt serious organised crime, or diversionary interventions in schools, communities and prisons, we will work with analysts to assess current evaluation measures and statistical indicators and to devise other methods of monitoring progress.

A key part of this work is to raise the awareness of practitioners within all sectors as to the importance of serious organised crime prevention and target hardening measures through improvements in internal processes and initiatives. Again we can use surveys to measure levels of awareness and work with analysts to develop appropriate measurements of progress that can be used to evaluate some aspects of work on the deter strand.

We will publish research and data as they become available, and we will continue to share examples of evidenced good practice including where regulators have succeeded in disrupting serious organised crime groups.