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Publication - Statistics

Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report: March 2025

Published
27 March 2025
From
Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs, +4 more … Minister for Victims and Community Safety, Lord Advocate, Chief Statistician, Director of Justice
Directorate
Safer Communities Directorate, +2 more … Justice Directorate, Children and Families Directorate
Topic
Communities and third sector, Law and order, Public safety and emergencies

This report contains summary statistics covering a number of important justice and safer communities areas. It is published with up to date statistics every month.

Part of

Supporting documents

Improved public perception of local crime rate since 2008-09. The public feel safer in their local communities. The SCJS found that, in 2021-22, 76% of adults thought that the local crime rate had stayed the same or reduced in the past two years. This shows an improvement from 69% in 2008-09 and 73% in 2019-20.

Most adults feel safe walking alone after dark. The SCJS found that over three-quarters (76%) of adults said that they felt very or fairly safe walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark in 2021-22, unchanged from 2019-20 but an increase from 66% in 2008-09.

Just under half of adults say police are doing a good or excellent job. The SCJS reported that, in 2021-22, 49% of adults said that the police in their local area were doing a good or excellent job, down from 55% in 2019-20 and 61% in 2012-13.

Fall in emergency hospital admissions due to assault since 2014-15. In 2023-24, there were 1,691 emergency hospital admissions due to assault, including 438 due to assault with a sharp object. These were, respectively, 33% and 18% lower than in 2014-15.

Number of fires fell 10% in the last year. In 2023-24, there were 24,060 fires in Scotland, down 10% on 2022-23 and the lowest in the last ten years. There were 42 fire fatalities in 2023-24, down from 43 in 2022-23 and around the average for the last decade.

Chart 7: Number of fatal fire casualties – 2014-15 to 2023-24

Annual number of fatal casualties in fires in Scotland, as reported by Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, 2014-15 to 2023-24. This ranges between 27 and 52 fire fatalities casualties over the decade.

Number of deliberate fires has decreased. There were 278 deliberate building fires in quarter 2 of 2024-25, down from 313 in the same quarter of 2023-24. Over the same period, the number of deliberate road vehicle fires fell from 226 to 206.

Chart 8: Deliberate building and road vehicle fires, 2013-14 Q1 to 2024-25 Q1

Four quarter average number of deliberate building fires and road vehicle fires for each quarter from quarter 2 of 2013-14 (July to September 2013) onwards. There has been a decline in building fires over this period and road vehicle fires decline below 200 from 2022-23.

Note: The figures used in this chart are the average of the quarter in question and the three quarters prior, in order to allow for seasonal variation.

Unwanted fire alarm signals made up 17% of incidents in the second quarter of 2024-25. Unwanted fire alarm signals (UFAS) describe avoidable false alarm signals from a workplace, either from an automatic fire alarm or from a person. There were 3,324 UFAS incidents in quarter 2 of 2024-25, which made up 17% of all incidents attended in that quarter. This is down from the same quarter of 2023-24 when UFAS made up 19% of all incidents. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service introduced a new policy in July 2023 which outlined a change in how automatic fire alarm call outs are managed and led to a decrease in the number of UFAS incidents attended.

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