Drug Seizures and Offender Characteristics, 2024-25
This is a publication detailing the estimated number and quantity of various drug types seized by Police Scotland in relation to both supply and possession crimes during the 2024-25 financial year.
Annexes
Data Quality Statement
Following discussion with Police Scotland regarding the previous data collection process for drug supply crimes, it was agreed that the manual review of several thousand drug supply records each year is no longer an effective use of policing resource. As such, and in line with the Scottish Government statistics group strategic priority of streamlining what we do and minimising work that adds less value, Justice Analytical Services have instead produced an estimate of the type and quantity of drugs seized from these crimes based on a random sample.
To produce this annual release on drug seizures, Scottish Government statisticians have used a similar methodology to that used previously for collecting the data on drug possesion crimes. For 2024-25, data from drug supply crimes was collected via a random sample of 400 drug supply crime records. This sample was stratified by crime type and police division so that the sample’s crime types and geographic distribution reflects the distribution of drug supply crimes across Scotland. These records were then reviewed by Scottish Government statisticians.
This change in methodology means that the 2024-25 data presented on drug supply seizures is not comparable with data presented in previous years.
The current collection process for drug seizures data is a temporary one. We will re-visit this in future years, working with Police Scotland to consider any new opportunities to further improve the data collection process for these statistics following the rollout of the new national IT system for recording crime.
Data from drug possession crimes is collected via a random sample of 400 drug possession crime records per year. This sample is stratified by police division so that the sample’s geographic distribution reflects the distribution of drug possession crimes across Scotland. These records are reviewed by Scottish Government statisticians.
We always welcome feedback on the content of our statistical bulletins and users are welcome to submit their comments to: JusticeAnalysts@gov.scot.
Police Scotland Management Information
In addition to the Official Statistics on drug seizures, Police Scotland publish management information on drug crimes recorded by the police (including the number of recorded crimes of drug supply & production, possession of drugs and other drug crimes). This is presented within their Quarterly Management Information Reports, which are available from the ‘How we are performing’ section of Police Scotland’s website.
These reports are produced to demonstrate Police Scotland’s commitment to transparency (alongside other regular reporting activity to the Scottish Police Authority). The information within these reports is presented on a cumulative quarterly basis, with the first quarter of a reporting year containing 3 months of data (from April to June), the second containing 6 months of data (from April to September) etc. The reports are typically published within 2 months of the period to which they refer.
Other notes
In addition to drugs controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, the Psychoactive Substance Act 2016 made it an offence to produce, supply, offer to supply, possess with intent to supply, possess on custodial premises, import or export psychoactive substances. The number of crimes of production, supply or possession in custody of a psychoactive substance was 4 in 2022-23, 3 in 2023-24, and 9 in 2024-25. Figures for 2022-23 and 2023-24 are available in this particular instance as this refers to a specific crime code included in the data return from Police Scotland in order to produce the Recorded Crime in Scotland publications.