Case Explained: Publication of Wildlife Crime in Scotland 2024 | Scottish Government – Legal Perspective

An Official Statistics in Development publication for Scotland.

The latest statistics on wildlife crime in Scotland were published today. Recorded wildlife crime offences increased by 15% between 2022-23 and 2023-24 from 220 to 254 offences, before falling by 27% between 2023-24 and 2024-25 to 186 offences.

The statistics present findings from multiple stages of the criminal justice system, including law enforcement, prosecutions, supporting evidence and intelligence.

The 2024 report introduces two major improvements:

• Data is made available one year earlier from some sources, including  recorded crime (data up to 2024-25).
• Analysis is presented which links those convicted of wildlife crimes to previous convictions for other crimes, such as threatening and abusive behaviour.

Other key results from the report include:

• The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service received 72 wildlife crime cases in 2023-24. The most common outcome was an alternative to prosecution (e.g. fine) (42%). Thirty-five percent of cases were prosecuted, and of those, 64% were convicted, 28% were acquitted and 8% were pending trial. These patterns are broadly in line with previous years.
• Half of those convicted of a wildlife offence between 2019-20 and 2023-24 had at least one conviction for a non-wildlife offence in the previous 10 years. A particularly high percentage (76%) of those convicted of hunting with dogs (typically hare and deer coursing) had previous convictions for non-wildlife offences, for example, assault and threatening or abusive behaviour.

Read the full report here.

Background

When a wildlife crime is suspected, the first step is for it to be reported to the police (or detected by the police), and then recorded. Further steps may include investigation to assess whether the recorded crime should be part of a case submitted to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) and then a decision on whether there is sufficient evidence for the case to be prosecuted. Ultimately a court case may result in a conviction or acquittal. All these stages may be supported by relevant scientific evidence and intelligence.

This report presents statistics relating to wildlife crime as recorded in various parts of the police and justice system. Although these sets of statistics are related, direct comparisons between them cannot be made due to differences in data sources, timing and the bases on which statistics were collated. For example, several recorded crimes may be included in one COPFS case (involving multiple sources of scientific evidence), and subsequent criminal proceedings may occur in a different year.

Official statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.