Hate crimes recorded by the police in Scotland, 2023-24

Introduction

This report presents updated information on the number of hate crimes recorded by the police in Scotland during 2023-24 (along with previously published time series analysis since 2014-15) prior to implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 (‘the Act’) was commenced on 1st April 2024. The activity covered by this report (i.e. the volume of hate crime recorded by Police Scotland in 2023-24) predates implementation of the above Act.

An earlier study (Police recorded hate crime - characteristics: updated study - gov.scot) included details on the characteristics of hate crime, based on a random sample of cases recorded by the police in 2020-21. The analysis of those characteristics included information about the people involved (for example the ethnicity of victims and perpetrators), the types of prejudice shown by those committing hate crimes, and how these cases came to the attention of the police. Examples of findings from that study included (i) that an estimated one-in-four hate crimes had a victim who was a police officer in the line of duty and (ii) that where victims weren’t police officers, almost two-thirds (or 64%) of race aggravated hate crimes had a victim from a visible ethnic (non-white) group.

Section 15 of the Act provides for the publication of future reports on hate crime recorded by the police in Scotland, including on offences aggravated by prejudice within the meaning of Section 1 (of the Act) and offences under the Act. This should also detail, to the extent that this information has been recorded by the police, the age, sex and ethnic or national origins of any person recorded as being the victim, perpetrator or suspected perpetrator of the offence. Furthermore, the report must include, again to the extent that this has been recorded, information on the specific prejudice being shown by the perpetrator across the different aggravators. Further information on the content of the Act is available from the Scottish Parliament website.

Going forward, annual reports containing the more detailed analysis as outlined in Section 15 will be produced for the years of 2024-25 onwards. However, it is important to note that due to (i) the change in legislation and (ii) a change in methodology due to a new source of administrative data being used, it will not be possible to produce any like-for-like comparisons of the number of hate crimes recorded before the 1st April 2024 with those recorded from 1st April 2024 onwards.

Users can keep informed of future updates through the Scotstat network.

We would welcome any feedback on the value of the information provided in this report. Please contact us at: Justice_Analysts@gov.scot