User Guide to Recorded Crime Statistics in Scotland

9. The Scottish Crime Recording Board

The role of the Scottish Crime Recording Board (SCRB) is ‘to act as the guardian of, and ultimate decision maker on, issues related to the Scottish Crime Recording Standard (SCRS)’. The SCRB supports the production of accurate and objective statistics on crime in Scotland, and meets at least once a year. The Board ensures that crime data is comprehensive, consistent, transparent and trustworthy. It takes into account the needs of both data users and providers in the production of crime statistics and ensures that this process is undertaken in a manner consistent with the Code of Practice for Statistics. Further information on the SCRB’s remit is available, including details on the SCRB’s purpose, objectives and functions, its working principles and membership.

The actions agreed at meetings of the SCRB, together with the outcomes achieved from those actions, are agreed between members, documented and are made publicly available. This is to provide reassurance that changes in classifications, aggregation and methods are discussed and agreed openly by key stakeholders for the wider benefit of users.

The SCRB replaced the previous Scottish Crime Registrars’ Group, which met quarterly and was established to support consistency in implementing the SCRS and associated Counting Rules. The SCRB built upon and widened the remit and membership of the Scottish Crime Registrars’ Group, following recommendations from HMICS in its 2013 Review of Incident and Crime Recording.

The SCRB is chaired by the Justice Analytical Services division of the Scottish Government with representatives from Police Scotland (including the National Crime Registrar), the Scottish Police Authority, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Scotland (HMICS), the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), British Transport Police, Ministry of Defence Police, and other external stakeholders as appropriate.

The functions of the SCRB include:

• ownership of this User Guide, ensuring the Quality Assurance section transparently reflects quality assurance procedures;
• oversee and promote continuous improvement in quality assurance processes;
• oversee the maintenance and development of the SCRS (including the Counting Rules), and to approve all changes to it (a Technical Group, chaired by Police Scotland, supports the Board in this role);
• support HMICS in their Crime Audits.