Knife crime prosecution statistics: FOI release

Information requested

1. How many people have been prosecuted under Section 47 and Section 49 of the Criminal Law Consolidation Scotland Act between January 1, 2013 and June 1, 2025, broken down per year. Please provide details for prosecutions under S.47 and S.49 separately.

2. For S.47 cases:

a) How many were put on petition per year?

b) How many were dealt with as summary complaints, per year?

c) How many were diverted from prosecution, per year?

3. For S.49 cases:

a) How many were put on petition per year?

b) How many were dealt with as summary complaints per year?

c) How many were diverted from prosecution per year?

4. Of the prosecutions under both of these acts:

a) How many received custodial sentences per year?

b) How many received custodial sentences of between four and five years, per year?

c) How many received custodial sentences of three to four years, per year?

d) How many received custodial sentences of less than three years, per year?

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Specifically, the data the Scottish Government publish on people prosecuted and convicted in Scottish courts (Criminal Proceedings in Scotland) does not include data on individuals placed on petition or diversions from prosecution.

Furthermore, data are published on a financial year not a calendar years basis and the most recent available data is for the ten years from 2013-14 to 2022-23. We therefore cannot supply data for 2023-24 or 2024-25. You may wish to try contacting the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal or Scottish Courts and Tribunal Services, who may be able to provide this information.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have this part of the information you have requested.

The data that we are able to provide is shown in the tables below and in the specific responses to your queries listed:

1) See Table 1, below.

2a) The Scottish Government does not hold this data.

2b) See Table 2, below.

2c) The Scottish Government does not hold this data.

3a) The Scottish Government does not hold this data.

3b) See Table 2, below.

3c) The Scottish Government does not hold this data.

4a) See Table 3, below.

4b) See Table 4, below.

4c) See Table 4, below.

4d) See Table 4, below.

Table 1 People prosecuted in Scottish courts under Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 Sections 47 and 49, where main charge1, 2013-14 to 2022-23

	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-212	2021-222	2022-232
Total prosecutions	2,102	1,986	1,882	1,790	1,768	1,919	2,092	1,355	1,847	2,051
Section 47	835	853	742	699	665	743	795	462	669	763
Section 49	1,267	1,133	1,140	1,091	1,103	1,176	1,297	893	1,178	1,288

Table 2 People prosecuted in Scottish courts by summary procedure under Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 Sections 47 and 49, where main charge1, 2013-14 to 2022-23

	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-212	2021-222	2022-232
Total prosecutions	1,204	1,113	1,097	1,123	1,254	1,372	1,468	929	1,261	1,458
Section 47	647	626	564	545	551	614	629	366	528	622
Section 49	557	487	533	578	703	758	839	563	733	836

Table 3 People convicted in Scottish courts under Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 Sections 47 and 49, where main charge1, and given a custodial sentence as main penalty, 2013-14 to 2022-23

	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-212	2021-222	2022-232
Total custody	643	586	508	488	504	600	609	419	481	427
Section 47	174	180	123	139	132	168	167	114	108	95
Section 49	469	406	385	349	372	432	442	305	373	332

Table 4 People convicted in Scottish courts under Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 Sections 47 and 49, where main charge1, and given a custodial sentence of five years or less as main penalty, by sentence length, 2013-14 to 2022-23

		2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-212	2021-222	2022-232
Total custody		643	586	508	488	503	600	608	419	481	427
Section 47	Less than three years	171	179	123	137	131	167	167	111	107	95
	Three years to under four years	3	1	.	2	.	1	.	3	1	.
	Four years to five years	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
Section 49	Less than three years	456	395	379	343	368	421	431	303	371	326
	Three years to under four years	13	10	5	4	4	9	9	2	1	6
	Four years to five years	.	1	1	2	.	2	1	.	1	.

Notes:

1. The main charge is the one conferring the most severe penalty.
2. Data from 2020-21 onwards were affected by the pandemic, including court closures, reduced court capacities due to social distancing measures, delays to cases where key participants were forced to self-isolate following positive COVID tests and shifting volumes to tackle back logs. Figures for these years should not be considered indicative of long-term trends.

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