Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service's (COPFS) dedicated Wildlife and Environmental Crime Unit (WECU) has been in operation since 15 August 2011. WECU 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.

Fish poaching was the most common category of wildlife crime cases received by COPFS in 2022-23 with 30 cases out of a total of 63.

Figure 3: The number of wildlife crime cases received by COPFS in 2022-23, by offence type.

Figure 3 shows that the highest number of cases were relating to fish poaching (30), followed by birds (13) and hunting with dogs (9). Of these hunting with dogs offences, 8 related to allegations of hare coursing, and 1 related to fox hunting. "Other wildlife offences" included circumstances involving disturbance of dolphins, mountain hares, being in possession of articles capable of being used for wildlife offences and possession of an article derived from a dead wild bird.

The number of cases (63) in 2022-23 is 11% less than the average over the previous four years (71). Of those 63 cases, 2 were received by COPFS from reports submitted by 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 2022-23 are shown in Figure 4 below and statistics on outcomes for 2018-19 to 2022-23 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.

Prosecution was undertaken in 15 wildlife cases (24%), of which 10 have resulted in a conviction, with 1 case pending trial.
Figure 4: Outcomes of all wildlife cases reported to COPFS in 2022-23.

Figure 4 shows that the decision to prosecute in court was undertaken in 15 cases (24% of cases received).  Of these:

• 10 cases resulted in a conviction (67% of cases prosecuted) *
• 4 cases resulted in acquittal (27% of cases prosecuted)  
• 1 case is pending trial at the time of writing (7% of cases prosecuted)

*In some cases this reflects the verdict following trial and, in others, the result of a plea adjustment.

37 cases were dealt with by an alternative to prosecution (59% of cases received), with many of these cases (27) relating to fish poaching. Warning letters were issued in the majority of those cases.  Fiscal fines, combined offers (fiscal fine and compensation) and Social Work diversion were issued in others, or the case was referred to the Scottish Children’s Reporter.

No action was taken in 11 cases (17% of cases received). In the majority of those cases, no action was taken for legal reasons, including:  

• instances where there was insufficient evidence to permit proceedings
• instances where the delay in reporting was such that prosecutorial action was no longer possible. 

Further detail: of case outcomes in the individual offence categories (fish poaching; birds; hunting with dogs; etc) are provided in the Tables supporting document (Tables 7 to 15), which also includes detail of the outcome of some notable cases reported by COPFS (Table 16).