Prosecutions made under section 92 of the Trade Marks Act 1994: FOI release

Information requested

1. number of prosecutions relating to the selling of counterfeit goods and products in Scotland every year for the last five years.

2. number of above prosecutions associated with fake or imitation luxury beauty and fashion products.

3. budget, in GBP, allocated for arrests and prosecutions associated with counterfeit goods in Scotland.

4. documents or records detailing discussions in Holyrood of the sale of counterfeit products and related prosecutions.

Response

To aid my response I have numbered your questions and provided answers below:

Q1

I have interpreted your request as prosecutions made under section 92 of the Trade Marks Act 1994. However, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide you with all the information you have requested. Therefore, this is a formal notice under section 17(1)(b) of FOI(S)A (information not held) that the Scottish Government does not hold all of the requested data. Our most recent data available is 2023-24 so I have included a table below that includes the number of prosecutions from 2019-20 to 2023-24.

Act section	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
s92(1)	0	0	0	0	1
s92(1)(b)	2	2	1	1	0
s92(1)(c)	0	2	4	1	10
Total	2	4	5	2	11

Source: Criminal Proceedings in Scotland 2023-24

Data from 2020-21 onwards was affected by the pandemic. This includes: court closures, reduced court capacities due to physical distancing measures, delays to cases where key participants were forced to self-isolate following positive COVID-19 tests and reprioritisation of cases to deal with the resulting backlogs. Data from this period should not be considered indicative of long-term trends.

Q2 and Q3

The Scottish Government does not hold information relating to the number of prosecutions listed above that were associated with fake or imitation luxury beauty and fashion products or the total cost of budget allocated for arrests and prosecutions associated with counterfeit goods in Scotland. Therefore, this is a notice under section 17(1)(b) of FOI(S)A that the Scottish Government does not hold the information that you have requested. You may wish to contact Police Scotland seeking a breakdown of its budget allocated on arrests relating to counterfeit goods, and Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service on prosecutions relating to the issue.

You can contact Police Scotland via email at foi@scotland.police.uk or postal mail at Information Management, Police Scotland, Clyde Gateway, 2 French Street, Glasgow, G40 4EH. Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service can be contacted via email at foi@copfs.gov.uk or via postal mail at 25 Chamber Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1LA.

Q4

Records of discussions in Holyrood are published on the Scottish Parliament website – Official Report: search what was said in Parliament | Scottish Parliament Website. The Scottish Government does not hold written records of discussions in the Scottish Parliament. Therefore, section 17(1)(b) of FOI(S)A applies. If you have any queries or need to speak to someone at the Scottish Parliament, you can email info@parliament.scot or call 0131 348 5000 or 0800 092 7500 (freephone) for support.

About FOI

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