Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service Statistics

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has a dedicated Wildlife and Environmental Crime Unit (WECU) which investigates and manages the prosecution of all cases involving crimes against wildlife. Figures in this section are at case level and it should be noted that one case may relate to multiple offences and/or people.

Figure 3: Fish poaching was the most common category of wildlife crime cases received by COPFS in 2021-22 with 23 cases out of a total of 77.

The number of wildlife crime cases received by COPFS in 2021-22

Figure 3 shows that cases relating to fish poaching (23) is the highest category, followed by cases relating to Birds (16) and “Other wildlife” (16), which includes damaging or destroying the breeding site or resting place of a European protected species. The 11 cases in the "Hunting with dogs" category related to allegations of hare coursing or deer coursing.

The number of cases (77) in 2021-22 is close to the average over the past five years (70) and, of those 77 cases, 4 were received by Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) from reports submitted by the River Tweed Commissioners and the Scottish SPCA.

Further detail: on data for earlier years is provided in Tables 3 and 4 of the Tables supporting document. 

The outcomes of the cases for 2021-22 are shown in Figure 4 below and statistics for 2017-18 to 2021-22 are available in Table 5 of the supporting documents. Table 6 gives the outcomes of those cases reported by the River Tweed Commission and Scottish SPCA.

Figure 4: 23 cases of wildlife crime resulted in prosecution (30% of all cases), of which 14 cases resulted in a conviction

Outcomes of all wildlife cases reported to COPFS in 2021-22

The following information relates to cases reported in 2021-22:

Prosecution in court was undertaken in 23 cases in 2021-22 (30% of cases received) of which:

• 14 cases resulted in a conviction (61% of cases prosecuted).
• 2 cases resulted in acquittal (9% of cases prosecuted). In some cases this reflects the verdict following trial and in others, the result of a plea adjustment.
• 7 cases are pending trial at the time of writing (30% of cases).

33 cases were dealt with by an alternative to prosecution (43% of cases received). Fiscal fines were issued in the majority of those cases. Warning letters were issued in others.

No action was taken in 21 cases (27% of cases received). In the majority of those cases, no action was taken for legal reasons.

The legal reasons included:

• circumstances that did not constitute a crime;
• instances where there was insufficient evidence to permit proceedings; and
• instances where the delay in reporting was such that prosecutorial action was no longer possible.

  Further detail: of case outcomes in the individual categories are provided in Annex 2 – Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service case outcomes.