Recorded Crime

Recorded crime statistics are a Scottish Government statistical output derived from Police Scotland's recorded crime database. A number of factors will affect the number of crimes recorded, including the number of crimes committed, whether crimes committed were observed and reported and also the impact of operations by Police Scotland and other organisations to target specific types of wildlife crime.

Figure 1: There were 286 wildlife crime offences in 2021-22, a decrease of 7% from 308 in 2020-21.

Total wildlife crimes from Police Scotland Recorded Crime statistics, 2017-2018 to 2021-22

Overall recorded wildlife crime offences decreased by 7% from 308 in 2020-21 to 286 offences in 2021-22, with noticeable decreases in fish poaching (from 110 to 49 offences) and hunting with dogs (from 44 to 13 offences). The increases seen for birds (from 29 to 74 offences) and “other wildlife offences” (from 43 to 73 offences) can both, in part, be attributed to Operation Tantallon which targeted offences against peregrine falcons. Some offences resulting from Operation Tantallon (e.g. nest disturbance) have been classified under the category “birds”, whereas other offences (e.g. sale of peregrine falcon) appear under “other wildlife offences”. These offence categories are broad hence other factors will also be reflected in the data.

The data in Figure 1 is provided by Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services (derived from Police Scotland data) and aligns with official statistics on crime across all types. In previous Wildlife Crime reports, data was taken from a separate snapshot from Police Scotland, taken at a different time. Making this change has had very little impact on total recorded wildlife crime numbers, but has impacted to some extent on the offence type to which crimes have been classified (in particular for 2020-21). To maintain a consistent time series, Justice Analytical Services data will continue to be used in future reports.

Further detail: of offences by year and offence type is provided in Table 1 in the Tables supporting document. Additional information on offences relating to wildlife crime priority areas (badgers; bats; trade in endangered species; freshwater pearl mussels; poaching & coursing; and raptor persecution) is provided in a later section of this report.

Figure 2: The Lothians & Scottish Borders police division recorded the highest number of offences in 2021-22, with 70 offences.

The distribution of the recorded wildlife crimes between different Police Scotland divisions in 2021-22.

Note: this figure was updated on 11 October 2024, as previously the key points figure was shown here in error. There are no changes to the underlying statistics. This change only affects the web version of this report  - Figure 2 is shown correctly in the supporting documents.

The highest number of wildlife offences in 2021-22 was recorded in the Lothians & Scottish Borders police division (70), followed by the North East (66) and Highlands and Islands (44). The majority of all offences concerning birds were recorded in the Lothians and Scottish Borders (20), North East (16) and the Highlands and Islands (14) divisions. The high number of offences in the Lothians & Scottish Borders police division can, in part, be attributed to recorded crimes related to Operation Tantallon.

Further detail: of the breakdown of offence types by Police Scotland divisions is provided in Table 2 of the Tables supporting document and in the Wildlife Crime Priority Areas section of this report.