Scotland and Highlands litter offence prosecutions: EIR release

Information requested

You asked 'how many prosecutions for littering took place between 2015 and the present' and clarified you require totals for Scotland and Highland local authority area.

Response

The answer to your question is provided in the following tables.

People prosecuted in Scottish courts for litter offences1, where main charge

Financial year	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18
Scotland	14	5	7	3
Highland Local authority area	-	-	1	-

1. Where offence under Environmental Protection Act 1990 section 87(1).
Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database

People issued with a non-court disposal² for litter offences1

	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18
Scotland	610	465	270	193
Highland Local authority area	3	1	-	-

1. Where offence under Environmental Protection Act 1990 section 87(1).
2. Penalty issued by Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service or Police Scotland.
Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.

It is not possible to provide comprehensive figures on the numbers of people issued with fixed penalty notices (FPNs), as there is no legal requirement for organisations with the power to issue such penalties to provide reporting data to the Scottish Government.

Information for 2018-19 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2018-19 Statistical Bulletin. This is due to be published in January 2020. The dates of all Scottish Government Official and National Statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/ForthcomingPubs

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.