Wildlife Crime in Scotland 2023

Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA): Wildlife DNA Forensic Unit

SASA is a division of the Scottish Government’s Agriculture and Rural Economy directorate based in Edinburgh. One of its principal functions is to provide analytical and forensic services in the investigation of wildlife crime. The Wildlife DNA Forensic unit at SASA specialises in analysing animal DNA recovered during wildlife crime investigations, for example to determine what species a blood sample comes from or to link other evidence to a wildlife crime scene.

The most common case types for 2022-23 were raptor persecution and badger persecution.  
Figure 8: Scottish cases submitted to the Wildlife DNA Forensic Unit by type, 2018-19 to 2022-23.

Figure 8 shows a drop in submissions to the Wildlife DNA Forensic Unit from Scotland in 2022-23 from the previous two years although within the range received over the last 5 years. The 10 cases submitted over this reporting period show a broadly similar distribution of case types over the most recent 5 years.

Further detail: of the breakdown of Scottish Wildlife DNA Forensic Unit cases by year and offence category is provided in Table 25 of the Tables supporting document.