Number of religiously aggravated charges by local authority: FOI release

Information requested

The number of religiously aggravated charges related to Islam by local authority, from 2014-15 to 2017-18.

Response

Please find below a table which includes the information requested.
It should be noted that the table does not present any information about the religious beliefs or affiliations of the people targeted by the offensive conduct. The legislation defines a religiously aggravated offence as an incident where the offender evinces towards the victim "malice and ill-will based on the victim's membership (or perceived membership) of a religious group or social or cultural group with a perceived religious affiliation", or the offence is motivated by the same. There is no available data held by Police Scotland or the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service of Scotland (COPFS) on victims' membership of religious groups or of cultural groups with a perceived religious affiliation as this is not relevant to the definition of the crime in law. 
The number of charges where conduct was derogatory towards Islam remained relatively stable between 2016-17 and 2017-18, and remained lower than the peak in 2015-16. As in earlier years, there remains variation across the country. The rise in 2015-16 was not attributable to a single event or pattern, and appeared to reflect a general rise in the reporting of these types of charges across the year.
As with the ‘Religiously aggravated offending in Scotland 2017-2018’ publication, breakdowns with fewer than 5 charges are suppressed and denoted by ‘-‘.
For more information please see ‘Religiously aggravated offending in Scotland 2017-2018’
(https://www.gov.scot/publications/religiously-aggravated-offending-scotland-2017-18).

Table: Charges where Islam was the religious affiliation that was the subject of offensive conduct, by local authority where charges occurred, 2014-15 to 2017-18

Local Authority	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18
SCOTLAND	71	134	113	115
Aberdeen City	5	-	-	-
Aberdeenshire	0	0	0	-
Angus	0	0	-	0
Argyll and Bute	-	-	0	-
Clackmannanshire	0	-	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	-	-	0	-
Dundee City	-	16	-	-
East Ayrshire	0	0	-	-
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	-	0
East Lothian	-	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0	-	-
Edinburgh, City of	19	29	43	30
Falkirk	-	6	-	7
Fife	-	6	-	11
Glasgow City	20	29	23	16
Highland	0	-	-	-
Inverclyde	0	-	-	0
Midlothian	-	-	-	-
Moray	0	0	0	0
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0	-	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	-	-	9
North Lanarkshire	0	-	-	6
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	0	0	-	-
Renfrewshire	-	7	-	-
Scottish Borders	-	0	0	0
Shetland Islands	0	-	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	0	0	-
South Lanarkshire	-	-	-	-
Stirling	-	-	-	-
West Dunbartonshire	0	-	5	-
West Lothian	5	13	-	-

Source: Scottish Government analysis of charges reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service of Scotland (COPFS) under Section 74 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003

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