ONE SERIOUS CRIME EVERY 30 MINUTES

As SNP tries to claim crime is at record low – by ignoring 288,000 offences – the shocking truth:

DAMNING figures have revealed one violent or sexual crime is reported every 30 minutes – as it emerged that the SNP had failed to include nearly 300,000 offences in the tally.

Yesterday, Justice Secretary Michael Matheson trumpeted an ‘encouraging’ 3 per cent fall in overall recorded crime to ‘historically low levels’.

But his claim was based on figures which exclude nearly 60,000 assaults – and many other crimes such as stalking and racial harassment. The Scottish

Government statistics also show that sex crime is at an all-time high and the number of homicides has risen by nearly a third in the past year – while police are solving only half of all crime.

Labour justice spokesman Claire Baker said ‘the public deserves better than the Government spinning lines and statistics’.

Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘The SNP will no doubt boast about record low levels of crime, but everyone knows this has to be taken with a pinch of salt, particularly given some serious offences are not included in these figures.’

According to the figures, recorded crime fell from 246,243 to 238,651 between 2015-16 and 2016-17, a decrease of about 3 per cent and the lowest level since 1974.

A separate category – ‘offences’, as opposed to ‘crimes’ – groups together offending deemed more ‘minor’, such as common assault and motoring offences. The total number of ‘offences’ decreased from 339,193 to 288,961.

But the official figures also show that the number of ‘non-sexual crimes of violence’ – including homicides, serious assault and robbery – had risen in the past year from 6,737 to 7,164, an increase of 6 per cent.

Homicides – which include murder, culpable homicide and causing death by dangerous driving – shot up by 30 per cent, from 81 to 105, while robbery was up by 8 per cent from 1,327 to 1,435.

Sexual crimes rose from 10,273 to a record 10,822 – an increase of 5 per cent – and within that category, group rapes and attempted rapes are up by 4 per cent from 1,809 to 1,878. There was a total of 17,986 violent and sexual crimes in 2016-17, meaning an average of 49 such crimes are reported to police every day, or two an hour.

A crime is defined as having been ‘cleared up’ when there ‘exists a sufficiency of evidence under Scots Law, to justify consideration of criminal proceedings’.

Overall the clear-up rate for recorded crime (not offences) decreased by 1.6 percentage points from 51.6 per cent to 50 per cent in the last year. The rate for sexual crimes fell by 11.8 percentage points between 2015-16 and 2016-17, from 74.1 per cent to 62.3 per cent, which means nearly 40 per cent were unsolved.

For non-sexual crimes of violence, the clear-up rate fell from 82 per cent to 77.1 per cent, the lowest clear-up rate since 2011-12.

The SNP yesterday tweeted that recorded crime has fallen to the ‘lowest level since 1974’. This was accompanied by a video of Swedish pop group Abba, and the comment: ‘In other words, crime in Scotland is at the lowest level since Abba won Eurovision with Waterloo.’

But Mr Kerr pointed out that the small fall in recorded ‘crime’ missed out the large number of

‘The public deserves better’

‘offences’, a category that includes some assaults, breach of the peace and even stalking.

The number of common assaults, deemed to be less serious, has fallen by 1 per cent from 58,596 to 57,861. Mr Kerr said: ‘The fall in clear-up rates will be immensely concerning to people across the country. We are now in a situation where criminals know they literally have a 50-50 chance of getting away with their illegal activity.’

Sandy Brindley, chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, said: ‘The exponential increase in crimes, such as communicating indecently and causing someone to view sexual activity or images, is both significant and worrying.’

Last night Police Scotland deputy chief constable Rose Fitzpatrick said: ‘The overall reduction in recorded crime is to be welcomed – it means fewer victims of crime in our communities.

‘The professionalism of our officers and staff ensures we continue to deliver a high level of service to the people of Scotland.’

Mr Matheson said: ‘While the continued fall in recorded crime to historically low levels is encouraging, I remain focused on ensuring everyone feels safe in their community.

‘That demands a relentless focus on where crimes persist – whether online or in public or domestic spaces – to identify where best to strengthen the collective efforts of policing, public services and communities themselves.’

Scottish Government officials insisted that recorded crime is ‘reported in exactly the same way as previous administrations’.

A spokesman said: ‘While recorded crime is at a 43-year low, the changing nature of crime means Police Scotland are dealing with often complex cyber-based cases and non-recent sexual offences, and the Policing 2026 strategy aims to ensure they have capacity to deal with these more effectively in order to keep crime down and communities safe.’

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