Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2025-26

Data and methodology

How to access background or source data

The data collected for this statistical bulletin:

☒ are available in more detail through statistics.gov.scot.

☒ some limited additional information may be made available on request, subject to consideration of legal and ethical factors. Please contact statistics.enquiries@gov.scot for further information.

☐ detailed information cannot be made available by Scottish Government for further analysis as Scottish Government is not the data controller.

Data sources

Accredited Official Statistics on police recorded crime are based on data which Police Scotland extract from their data repository, called the Source for Evidence Based Policing (SEBP) and submit to the Scottish Government. Prior to 2020-21, the data was collected from a different Police Scotland IT system, called the Scottish Operational and Management Information System (ScOMIS).

Scottish Government statisticians, with support from Police Scotland, conducted a comparative analysis between ScOMIS and SEBP. This analysis considered the impact of changing the source of recorded crime statistics from ScOMIS to SEBP and found that there is strong alignment between both administrative systems, with just minor discrepancies. The outcomes of this work are discussed in more detail in the User Guide.

Prior to 2013-14 and the establishment of Police Scotland, the Scottish Government collected recorded crime data from the eight legacy forces, who in turn extracted the data from their own systems. Despite the change in method of collection, the data presented on total recorded crime remains comparable both before and after 1 April 2013. The Scottish Government produced a Technical Report on the Comparability of Recorded Crime Data in 2014 which detailed the quality assurance work which was carried out to reach this conclusion.

The detailed classification of crimes and offences used by the Scottish Government to collect criminal statistics contains over 500 codes. Further information on how the crime codes are grouped can be found in the User Guide. An updated crime and offence grouping structure has been in place since the 2021-22 Recorded Crime in Scotland bulletin. For more detailed information on the relevant changes please see Annex 5 of the 2021-22 Recorded Crime publication.

The statistical return from which most of the figures in this bulletin are taken is a simple count of the numbers of crimes and offences, for each local authority, which the police have recorded and cleared up.

Amendments to crime and offence records will always arise after data has been submitted by Police Scotland to the Scottish Government.

Following earlier consideration by the Scottish Crime Recording Board, it was agreed that an enhanced quality assurance process would be implemented from April 2024. This includes receiving an updated cut of data following quality assurance of the initial data provided. This ensures the data we publish is of the highest quality possible. This change in timing of data provision does introduce an inconsistency with years prior to 2023-24, however after analysing the two cuts of data we concluded the impact was negligible overall and the updated data provided a more accurate count of crimes and offences. 

The comparison presented in Table A15 in the ‘Supporting documents’ Excel workbook confirms that the extent of further amendment to police crime and offence records following the original submission of data continues to be minimal at the Scotland level. This gives users confidence that the published statistics for 2016-17 to 2024-25 recorded crimes and offences are reliable. On a proportional basis, the biggest impact among the five Crime groups is on Crimes against society, where a net 856 fewer crimes have been recorded following no-criming and reclassification between groups. This has reduced the number of Crimes against society by 1.4% from 63,398 to 62,542.

Despite the fact that only a very small proportion of records are amended following their original submission to the Scottish Government, it is desirable for Accredited Official Statistics purposes that time series comparisons between 2016-17 to 2024-25 are on a like-for-like basis. As such the 2016-17 to 2022-23 data used in this bulletin remains that which was submitted immediately following each of these years. Data from 2023-24 onwards remains as received in the updated extract provided following quality assurance.

Information on the data source used in the Recorded Crime bulletin series and supporting metadata can be found in the User Guide.

Information is also collected from the British Transport Police and the Ministry of Defence Police, but these figures have not been included in the main body of this bulletin. The number of crimes and offences recorded by these organisations in 2025-26, in addition to their clear up rates, is provided in Table A16 in the 'Supporting documents' Excel workbook.

Where can you find the data from this report?

All tables referred to throughout the bulletin are available in the 'Supporting documents' Excel workbook. The workbook includes an ‘Introduction’ sheet, with information on how to navigate the tables, alongside a ‘Notes’ sheet, with relevant details to assist users when reading and interpreting results. The Excel workbook mostly covers data for the last ten years.

The data is also available on statistics.gov.scot : Recorded Crimes and Offences and statistics.gov.scot : Crime Clear up Rates. These include data back to 1996-97.

Recording crimes and offences

On 1 April 2004, the Scottish Crime Recording Standard (SCRS) was introduced to help maintain a victim orientated approach to crime recording. It was anticipated that this might increase the number of minor crimes recorded such as vandalism and minor thefts. It can be seen from Figure 1 that this did cause a slight increase in 2004-05 as expected, but that the downward trend returned following this change to recording practice.

In one criminal incident, several crimes or offences may occur – e.g. a house may be broken into and vandalised, and the occupants assaulted. In this example, crimes of housebreaking (which would include the vandalism) and assaults would be recorded. Where multiple offences occur within one incident, more than one offence may be counted rather than one for the incident as a whole; that is, the counting system is offence based rather than incident based.

An offence may have more than one victim – for example in robberies – and be committed by more than one offender – e.g. some assaults and housebreakings (note that for Murder, Attempted murder and Culpable homicide, the number of crimes recorded is equal to the number of victims). Thus the statistics in this bulletin are not directly comparable with statistics on action taken against offenders, as one offence may lead to several persons being charged. Equally, an offender may be charged with several offences.

Attempts to commit an offence are included in the statistics, in general in the same group as the substantive offence.

Information on the definitions used in this bulletin are provided in the User Guide.

Data quality and validation

The Police Service of Scotland (referred to throughout this report as Police Scotland) is responsible for operational policing in Scotland and is held to account by the Scottish Police Authority. The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 changed the policing landscape in Scotland, replacing the previous eight police forces, the Scottish Police Services Authority and the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency from 1 April 2013.

The recording of crime by the police and the subsequent publication of information through this statistical bulletin is undertaken by those who are professionally independent of wider decision-making and performance processes within their organisations. Within Police Scotland, the Crime Registrars ensure that crimes in Scotland are recorded ethically. They sit within the corporate services business area so that they are removed from direct operational activity and investigation. In turn, the production of the Accredited Official Statistics on recorded crime is managed in an impartial and objective way, in the public interest, by Scottish Government statisticians.

A Scottish Crime Recording Board supports the production of accurate and objective statistics on crime in Scotland. It takes into account the needs of both users and providers in the production of crime statistics and ensures that this process is undertaken in a manner consistent with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The Board is chaired by the Justice Analysis and Strategy division of the Scottish Government and a wide range of organisations are represented including Police Scotland, the Scottish Police Authority, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).

In general, this statistical bulletin covers the ten year period from 2016-17 to 2025-26, the entirety of which is subject to the Scottish Crime Recording Standard (SCRS) introduced in 2004-05. The SCRS has helped maintain a consistent approach to recording crime and is maintained and developed by the Scottish Crime Recording Board. The SCRS manual can be accessed from the Board’s webpage.

The User Guide documents the steps undertaken to quality assure data that is captured and published as management information by Police Scotland, and analysed and produced as Accredited Official Statistics by the Scottish Government. This includes a summary of the quality checks made at each stage of the data journey, from capture to publication.

The extent to which police recording practices comply with the Scottish Crime Recording Standard and Counting Rules is assessed by audits conducted by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland. The full findings of the latest audit, conducted in 2020, can be found in the HMICS Crime Audit 2020 publication. A detailed discussion of the results of the audit and its relation to recorded crime is also provided in the User Guide. HMICS has commenced work on the next crime audit; it is anticipated that this will be published early in 2027. This audit will also consider, for the first time, detection of crime.

What comparisons can be made with other data sources?

When considering crime data across the UK, recorded crime statistics for England & Wales and Northern Ireland are not directly comparable with those in Scotland. The main principles for when a crime should be recorded are similar in all four nations. However, there are various differences between the respective Counting Rules, which specify each nation’s approach for counting the number of crimes that should be recorded as part of any single incident. Furthermore, differences in legislation and common law also have an impact on the comparability of recorded crime statistics between Scotland and the other UK nations.

While recorded crime in Scotland is not directly comparable with England & Wales or Northern Ireland due to differences in legislation and counting rules, there are some signs of increases in police recorded sexual crimes across the UK in recent years. The Official statistics for police recorded crime in England and Wales in 2024-25 show that total recorded Sexual offences and Rape are both at the highest level since 2002-03. This is likely to reflect a number of factors, including improvements in police recording practices and changes in reporting by victims. Similarly, sexual offences have shown a long term upwards trend in Northern Ireland according to the latest Accredited Official Statistics for Police Recorded Crime, with the most recent financial year (2025-26) showing the highest annual figures since 1998-99.

Detailed information on the victims of sexual crime is not collected in the main Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) victim form. Information on sensitive topics is collected through additional self-completion sections. These sections collect information on sexual victimisation, partner abuse, stalking and harassment. This data is collected over two survey years and published biennially. The next set of results will be for the combined 2023-24 and 2024-25 years and is expected to be published in 2026.

The latest Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, covering 2024-25, also provides an additional measure on violent crime victimisation (including those cases not reported to the police), to help inform users about the latest trends in non-sexual violence in Scotland.

Another source of statistics on assault is Public Health Scotland’s annual publication on hospital admissions due to unintentional injuries. This includes the number of emergency hospital admissions for assault. The latest published figures are for 2024-25 and are available at: Unintentional injuries - Urgent and unscheduled care - Healthcare system - Public Health Scotland.

There are several reasons why direct comparisons cannot be made between the two sources. For example, not all who attend hospital with assault injuries will report what has happened to the police, and many recorded assaults will not require inpatient hospital treatment.

In addition to the Accredited Official Statistics presented in this bulletin, Police Scotland publish management information on the number of crimes and offences recorded by the police. This is presented within their Quarterly Management Information Reports, which are available on Police Scotland’s website.

Further detail on the comparability of crime data can be found in the User Guide.