Wildlife crime in Scotland: 2015 annual report

Appendix 3A - Further information on COPFS Case Outcomes

Table A: Outcomes of all fish poaching cases

	2012-2013	2013-14	2014-2015
No action	13	11	9
Alternative to prosecution	18	16	21
Prosecuted	24	33	8
of which convicted	19	23	8
Total number of reports received	55	60	38

Table B: Outcomes of all other wildlife cases

	2012-2013	2013-14	2014-2015
Under investigation		1	1
No action	22	18	14
Alternative to prosecution	12	14	13
Prosecuted	37	32	32*
of which convicted	25	24	20
Total number of reports received	71	65	60

*One prosecution remains live

Outcomes by Individual Case Category

Table C: Offences relating to badgers

	2012-2013	2013-14	2014-2015
No action	1		1
Alternative to prosecution			1
Prosecuted	2		2
of which convicted	2		1
No. of reports received	3		4

Table D: Offences relating to birds

	2012-2013	2013-14	2014-2015
Under investigation		1	1
No action	7	3	3
Alternative to prosecution	2	5	3
Prosecuted	11	12	10**
of which convicted	8	10	7
No. of reports received	20	21	17

**One prosecution remains live

Table E: Offences relating to cruelty to wild animals

	2012-2013	2013-14	2014-2015
No action	1	2	3
Alternative to prosecution	2	3	2
Prosecuted	4	5	6
of which convicted	2	4	4
No. of reports received	7	10	11

Table F: Offences relating to deer

	2012-2013	2013-14	2014-2015
No action	2		2
Alternative to prosecution	1	1
Prosecuted	5	3	3
of which convicted	3	2	1
No. of reports received	8	4	5

Table G: Offences relating to hunting with dogs

	2012-2013	2013-14	2014-2015
No action	2	7	2
Alternative to prosecution
Prosecuted	7	6	4
of which convicted	5	3	2
No. of reports received	9	13	6

Table H: Other wildlife offences

	2012-2013	2013-14	2014-2015
No action	8	6	3
Alternative to prosecution	7	5	7
Prosecuted	8	6	7
of which convicted	5	5	5
No. of reports received	23	17	17

Table I: Other conservation offences

	2012-2013	2013-14	2014-2015
No action	1
Alternative to prosecution
Prosecuted
of which convicted
No. of reports received	1

Badger cases - supplementary note

Between April 2012 and March 2015, four reports were submitted to COPFS in which an offence under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 was the lead charge. A further three reports contained a charge under the Act, but the lead charge was one under snaring or animal welfare legislation. The figures provided in Tables 3 and in Table C of Appendix 3A reflect all seven cases.

The tables reflect case outcomes for any other appropriate offence, including snaring and animal welfare offences, if the circumstances did not justify the reporting or prosecution of charges under the Act.

A further 3 cases reported in these 3 years related to circumstances in which badgers were affected, bringing the total number of cases to 10. The outcomes of these 10 cases are shown in Table J below.

Table J: Case outcomes of supplementary Badgers offences

	2012-2013	2013-14	2014-2015
No action	1		1
Alternative to prosecution			1
Prosecuted	3		4
of which convicted	3		3
No. of reports received	4		6

Six of the ten reports involved snaring incidents. In one such case, the evidence did not establish that an offence was committed. The remaining five were prosecuted and resulted in convictions.

Four of the reports related to sett interference, two of which involved the deliberate targeting of badgers and both were prosecuted. One resulted in a conviction. The other prosecution was brought to an end by the court. The remaining two cases related to agricultural or ground-work activity. One case was dealt with by the use of a prosecutor's direct measure. No action could be taken in the other case for legal reasons.