A one-year increase is pounced on by the media but overall crime in Scotland has been flat for ten years after almost halving in the SNP era and who knew – drug possession down 27%, car theft down 60%, vandalism down 31%, burglary down 57% and prostitution down 74%!!???

From Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2025-26 published two days ago, the above line graph and:

The total number of crimes recorded by the police in Scotland in 2025-26 was 315,357. This is 16,246 crimes (or 5%) higher than the level recorded in 2024-25. Over the past 10 years, total recorded crime in Scotland has increased by 6%. This represents a more stable period than the previous 10 years (2006-07 to 2015-16), when total recorded crime fell by 38%.

Source: https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2025-26/pages/total-recorded-crime/

You can extract what you like from statistics like these to make a point you really wanted to make before they were published, to scare the population or a attack a government, and they do, but what if we extract these? Good news eh?

Did you know housebreaking 57%? Vandalism down 31%? Theft of a car down 60%? I had two cars stolen c 1990; none since!

And that 6% increase from 2016/2017? If you go from 2017/2018, it’s just 4%.

Bias is often just the choice of sources.

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