Wildlife crime in Scotland: 2020 annual report

2. Headline trends

This chapter outlines the main trends in wildlife crime recorded by the police, reports of those charged by the police and processed by COPFS and numbers of people proceeded against in court.

Recorded crime

Table 1 provides a summary of the different types of wildlife crime recorded by the police over the five year period to 2019-20. These recorded crime statistics are Scottish Government statistical output derived from Police Scotland's recorded crime database.

In 2019-20 there were 196 offences relating to wildlife recorded by the police. This is an increase of 13% in comparison with 2018-19 (171 recorded offences).

While overall recorded wildlife offences increased, crimes against birds dropped by 22% from the previous years and was the joint most commonly recorded type of crime in 2019-20 with 36 offences. Hunting with dogs is the other most commonly recorded type of crime and has increased by 64% from the 2018-19 year.

Table 1: Wildlife crime recorded by Police Scotland, 2015-16 to 2019-20

Offences relating to:	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
Badgers*	4	6	14	15	6
Birds	46	50	45	46	36
Conservation (protected sites)	5	1	5	3	5
Cruelty to wild animals	23	24	32	31	35
Deer	13	14	18	17	23
Fish poaching	75	68	45	24	27
Hunting with dogs	42	22	41	22	36
Poaching and game laws	0	6	3	2	2
Other wildlife offences	53	40	33	11	24
Total	261	231	236	171	196

Source: Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2019-20

* Offences recorded under Protection of Badgers Act 1992 only

Table 2 presents the distribution of the types of wildlife crime between different Police Scotland divisions in 2019-20.

Table 2: Wildlife crime recorded, by Police Scotland Division, 2019-20

Offences relating to:	North East	Argyll & West Dunbartonshire	Ayrshire	Dumfries & Galloway	Edinburgh	Fife	Forth Valley	Greater Glasgow	Highland & Islands	Lanarkshire	Renfrewshire & Inverclyde	Tayside	The Lothians & Scottish Borders	Total
Badgers	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	2	6
Birds	3	0	0	16	2	0	0	1	9	0	0	3	2	36
Conservation (protected sites)	0	0	0	1	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	5
Cruelty to wild animals	5	0	0	3	0	4	3	0	4	4	1	1	10	35
Deer	4	0	0	0	0	1	2	3	7	0	0	2	4	23
Fish poaching	6	1	3	1	1	1	3	1	9	0	1	0	0	27
Hunting with dogs	6	0	0	2	0	3	0	0	0	0	1	14	12	38
Poaching and game laws	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	2
Other wildlife offences	6	0	0	0	5	0	5	0	1	1	1	5	0	24
Total	32	1	3	23	8	12	13	5	31	6	4	28	30	196

Source: Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2019-20

The highest number of wildlife offences in 2019-20 was recorded in the North East (32), followed by the Highland & Islands (31) and The Lothians & Scottish Borders (30). Table 2 also shows that nearly half of all bird offences were recorded in the Dumfries & Galloway (16).

Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service Statistics

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service's (COPFS) dedicated Wildlife and Environmental Crime Unit (WECU) has been in operation since 15 August 2011. WECU investigates and manages the prosecution of all cases involving crimes against wildlife.

Case work of the Wildlife & Environmental Crime Unit in 2019-20

Table 3 shows the breakdown of wildlife cases received by COPFS in each of the financial years 2015-16 to 2019-20, following the standard categories used elsewhere in this report. Notes and Definitions on the COPFS data are available in Appendix 2 – Notes and Definitions for COPFS Data.

Table 3: Wildlife cases received by COPFS in 2015-16 to 2019-20

Offence relating to:	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
Badgers	*	*	*	*	3
Birds	15(*)	24(*)	13	12	1
Cruelty to wild animals	*(*)	8(*)	0	*(*)	0
Deer	*	*	*	*	3
Fish poaching	30	35	18	15(*)	17
Hunting with dogs	15	7	22	7	13
Other wildlife offences	20	14(*)	*	11	11
Other conservation offences	*	*	0	0	1
Total	90(9)	94(5)	67	54(*)	49

Source: Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service

*= data suppressed. See Appendix 2.

The figures in brackets in Table 3 indicate the number of reports submitted by a specialist reporting agency: in the case of fish poaching offences, by the River Tweed Commissioners and in the remaining categories, by the Scottish SPCA. Where fewer than five cases were reported in any category either in total or by a specialist reporting agency, the figures have been removed from the table.

The outcomes of these cases are shown in Table 4 below.

Table 4: Outcomes of all wildlife cases reported to COPFS in 2015-16 to 2019-20

All reports	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
No action	40	27	30	19(*)	23
Alternative to prosecution	27	35	23	18(*)	14
Prosecuted	23	32	14	17	12
of which convicted	16	25	*	11	5
No. of reports received	90(9)	94(5)	67	54(*)	49

Source: Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service

*= data suppressed. See Appendix 2.

The figures in brackets in Table 4 indicate the number of reports submitted by a specialist reporting agency: in the case of fish poaching offences, by the River Tweed Commissioners and in the remaining categories, by the Scottish SPCA. Where fewer than five cases were reported in any category either in total or by a specialist reporting agency, the figures have been removed from the table.

The following information relates to cases reported in 2019-20:

Prosecution in court was undertaken in 12 cases (24% of cases received):

• 5 cases resulted in a conviction (42% of cases prosecuted).
• 1 case resulted in acquittal (8% of cases prosecuted). In some cases this reflects the verdict following trial and in others, the result of a plea adjustment.
• 6 cases are pending trial at the time of writing (50% of cases).

14 cases were dealt with by an alternative to prosecution (29% of cases received). Warning letters were issued in the majority of those cases. Fiscal fines were issued in others.

No action was taken in 23 cases (47% of cases received). In the majority of those cases, no action was taken for legal reasons.

The legal reasons included:

• circumstances that did not constitute a crime; and
• instances where there was insufficient evidence to permit proceedings.

Further information about cases received in 2019-20 is as follows:

• A total of 13 reports (27% of cases received) involved activity targeting hares or rabbits.
• 3 reports (6% of cases received) related to circumstances involving badgers.
• 13 cases (27% of cases received) involved dogs.
• 6 cases (12% of cases received) involved the use of traps and snares.
• The cases in the "Hunting with dogs" category related to allegations of hare coursing or deer coursing.

"Other wildlife offences" included alleged contraventions of regulation 39(1)(d) of the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994 namely damaging or destroying the breeding site or resting place of a European protected species.

Other reports included circumstances involving red squirrels, bats and the use of firearms.

Further details of case outcomes in the individual categories are provided in Appendix 2A – Further Information on COPFS Case Outcomes.

Notable cases

Fish Poaching

• An individual was fined £200 after being found in circumstances which suggested that fish were being fished for other than by rod or line contrary to Section 2(1) and (2) of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 2003. The equipment used in the commission of said offence, namely a dinghy, and ropes with hooks were also forfeited.

Hare Coursing

• An individual pleaded guilty to setting a dog to chase and kill two brown hares in contravention of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, Section 11G(1) and was fined £1000.

• An individual pleaded guilty to hunting for hares with dogs contrary to the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002, Section 1 and was sentenced to a restriction of liberty order for a period of three months.

Other Categories

• An individual was fined £1000 for deliberately causing a bat nesting site or breeding site to be damaged and destroyed during the demolition of a building in contravention of the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994, Regulation 39(1)(d) and the European Communities Act 1972, Section 2(2).

• An individual pleaded guilty to shooting and killing a Sparrowhawk and was fined £450, in contravention of section 1(1)(a) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

• Two individuals who pleaded guilty to shooting and killing eight rabbits, without permission, by using an air rifle in terms of section 11G(1) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and firearms offences, were each fined £300. The air rifle involved was also forfeited.

Criminal proceedings statistics

Table 5 shows the number of people proceeded against in Scottish courts and the relevant conviction rates for wildlife offences between 2015-16 and 2019-20. Please note that this table is a summary and a breakdown of proceedings for specific offences is provided at Appendix 3 - Court proceedings and penalties data by specific offence.

Criminal Proceedings statistics are not directly comparable with the recorded crime or COPFS figures presented above for a number of reasons. Please see section 0 for further explanation.

Table 5: People proceeded against in Scottish Courts for wildlife crimes ¹, 2015-16 to 2019-20

Offences relating to:	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	Last five financial years
						Total proceedings	Conviction rate
Badgers	-	-	-	-	-	2	50%
Birds	5	4	3	2	4	18	100%
Cruelty to wild animals	6	2	5	-	3	16	75%
Deer	-	1	1	-	-	2	100%
Hunting with dogs	5	8	4	6	-	23	74%
Poaching and game laws	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Fish poaching	8	5	5	3	5	26	96%
Other wildlife offences	1	3	9	4	-	17	76%
Total proceeded against	25	23	27	15	12	104	85%
Total guilty	20	22	24	10	11
% guilty	80%	96%	89%	67%	92%
Total number of offences proceeded against2	73	59	52	43	33
Total number of offences found guilty2	33	32	25	15	24
% guilty2	45%	54%	48%	35%	73%

Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings Database

¹ Where main charge

² All charges

There were 12 people proceeded against for wildlife related offences in 2019-20, a 20% decrease from 2018-19 (15 people). The largest decrease for specific categories was in 'hunting with dogs' (with no persons proceeded against compared to six in 2017-18). There was, however, an increase in the number of proceedings for 'Cruelty to wild animals' and 'Fish poaching', up to three and five respectively in 2019-20 from zero and three in 2018-19.

Conviction rates for individual wildlife crime categories have been presented as a five year average due to the small numbers of proceedings for some categories. This shows that conviction rates vary among these categories, from 50% to 100%.

Although a single court proceeding can involve a number of different offences, it should be noted that Criminal Proceedings statistics only report on the 'main charge'. Unless otherwise stated, proceedings and convictions for wildlife crimes referred to in this section are for when the wildlife crime was the main charge in a single court proceeding. For example, if a shotgun offence receives a higher penalty than a wildlife offence in the same proceeding, the shotgun offence would be counted, not the wildlife offence. To illustrate the difference, the total number of individual wildlife offence convictions in each year, regardless of whether the wildlife offence was the main charge or not, are presented at the bottom of Table 5.

In 2019-20 court proceedings were held covering a total of 33 wildlife crime offences, in comparison to the 24 proceedings where wildlife crime was the main charge in a case.

Tables 6 and 7 present information on penalties issued for wildlife crime convictions and have been presented as aggregate figures due to the small numbers of proceedings for some crime categories in individual years.

Table 6 shows that the most common punishment for a wildlife crime conviction is still a monetary fine, with 63% of convictions receiving this type of penalty in 2019-20, down from 70% to 2018-19.

Table 6: People with a charge* proved for wildlife crimes in Scottish Courts, by main penalty, 2015-16 to 2019-20

	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
People proceeded against	25	23	27	15	12
People with a charge proved	20	22	24	10	11
Of which received:
Custody	1	1	2	-	-
Community sentence	4	5	3	1	4
Monetary	11	15	16	7	7
Other	4	1	3	2	-

Source: Criminal Proceedings Statistics

* Where main charge

In Table 7, aggregate totals for the five years from 2015-16 to 2019-20 show that monetary punishments are mostly likely to be given for all wildlife crime types. Only 4% of all wildlife crime convictions resulted in a custodial sentence.

Average fines and custodial sentences are also presented in Table 7. It is not possible to establish the average number of Community Payback Order (CPO) hours as this information is not held in the Criminal Proceedings database nor is it available for other types of crime.

Table 7: People with a charge* proved for wildlife crimes in Scottish Courts, by main penalty and wildlife crime, 2015-16 to 2019-20

Offences relating to:	2015-16 to 2019-20 totals					Average
	Total with a charge proved	Custody	Community sentence	Monetary	Other	Custodial sentence length (days)	Monetary fine (£)
Badgers	1	-	-	1	-	-	300
Birds	18	-	4	11	3	-	924
Cruelty to wild animals	12	1	2	7	2	126	450
Deer	2	-	-	2	-	-	413
Hunting with dogs	17	3	4	10	-	135	1,005
Poaching and game laws	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Fish poaching	25	-	4	16	5	-	233
Other wildlife offences	13	-	3	10	-	-	1,090
Totals	88	4	17	57	10	133	686

Source: Criminal Proceedings Statistics

* Where main charge

Comparing data sources

While the criminal justice IT systems represented in Tables 1 to 7 have common standards in terms of classifying crimes and penalties, care should be taken when comparing the different sets of statistics:

• Prosecutions may not happen or be concluded in the same year as a crime was recorded by Police Scotland. Timing is also an issue when comparing COPFS figures (which refer to prosecutions brought in respect of cases reported to COPFS in each financial year) and Criminal Proceedings statistics (which represent only prosecutions commenced and, of those, prosecutions concluded to the point of conviction, in each financial year)
• In the Police Scotland recorded crime statistics, a single crime or offence recorded by the police may have more than one perpetrator. By comparison the court statistics measure individuals who are proceeded against, which may be for more than one crime. As outlined above, only the main charge in a prosecution is presented for criminal proceeding statistics
• There is the possibility that the crime or offence recorded by Police Scotland may be altered e.g. when Police Scotland submit a report of alleged offending to COPFS, and COPFS may alter the charges during their case marking process, which makes it difficult to track crimes through the criminal justice process
• Additionally, crimes and offences alleged to have been committed by children less than 16 years old are not included in the criminal proceedings statistics as these are representative of activity in the adult courts. Young people are generally processed through the children's hearings system
• There may be discontinuity when comparing between the National Statistics data and Police Scotland data as any information provided by Police Scotland is taken from a 'live' system which is continually being updated as investigations progress. Whereas, the data provided by Police Scotland for the production of the National Statistics on Recorded Crime is extracted at the same time each year and is not back-revised. As a result, a reduction of in the number of crimes and offences recorded is expected due to two main scenarios:

1. Crimes and offences can be reclassified to a different crime or offence type i.e. from a wildlife crime to a different kind of crime, or

2. they can be re-designated as not being a crime following additional investigations.