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Publication - Statistics

Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report: April 2025

Published
24 April 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 updated with the most recently published statistics.

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.

* New * Number of deliberate fires has decreased. There were 223 deliberate building fires in 2024-25 Q3, down from 258 in 2023-24 Q3. There were 194 deliberate road vehicle fires in 2024-25 Q3, up from 161 in 2023-24 Q3

Chart 8: Deliberate building and road vehicle fires, 2013-14 Q3 to 2024-25 Q3

Four quarter average number of deliberate building fires and road vehicle fires for each quarter from quarter 3 of 2013-14 onwards. There has been a decline in building fires over this period and road vehicle fires 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.

* New * Unwanted fire alarm signals made up 17% of incidents in the third 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 3,140 UFAS incidents in 2024-25 Q3, which makes up 16.9% of all incidents attended in Q3. This is down from the previous year when UFAS made up 18.3% of all incidents attended in 2023-24 Q3. SFRS 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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