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Publication - Statistics

Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Quarterly Report: September 2026

Published
24 September 2026
From
Cabinet Secretary for Justice, +4 more … Minister for Victims and Community Safety, Lord Advocate, Chief Statistician, Director-General Education and 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 updated with the most recently published statistics

Supporting documents

Statistics on hate crime

  • The first annual report under Section 15 of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 was published this month (17 February). The report presents information on police recorded hate crimes in 2024-25, covering the first year since the commencement of the Act. Due to legislative and administrative changes, it is not possible to make like-for-like comparisons with the period prior to 2024-25.
  • The police recorded 8,538 hate crimes in 2024-25. In 2024-25, 62% of hate crimes included an aggravator for race, 24% sexual orientation, 12% disability, 7% religion and 2% transgender identity. The Act introduced two new protected characteristics, of age and variation in sex characteristics. Hate crimes aggravated by age and variation in sex characteristics each made up less than 1% of all hate crimes in 2024-25.

► * New *  Small decrease in overall hate crime charges. There was an increaseof 17% between 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, in the total number of charges reported to COPFS containing at least one element of hate crime. The figures from 2024-2025 onwards are not directly comparable with earlier years because they include new categories of hate crime and new charges introduced by the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. There were increases for disability,race, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity hate crime charges. Age and variations in sex characteristics aggravated charges saw a decrease over the same period. Racial crime remains the most commonly reported hate crime, followed by crimes with a sexual orientation aggravator.  In 2025-2026, 48 stirring up hatred charges relating to other protected characteristics were reported under S4(2) and (3) of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. This is around a quarter fewer than the 63 charges reported in 2024-25.

Chart 5: Number of charges reported to COPFS – 2003-04 to 2025-26

Chart 5 - Hate crime charges, 2003-04 to 2024-25 Annual number of charges of hate crime reported to the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service, by category of hate crime, 2003-04 to 2025-26. In the most recent data, race is the largest category, follow by sexual orientation, disability and then religious prejudice.

 

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