By Bill Heaney
Since 2006-07, violent crime in Scotland has fallen significantly, including a 15 per cent fall in homicide in 2020-21, to its lowest level since 1976, according to Keith Brown, the SNP Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans.
He told the Scottish Parliament that surveys of the population show that adults in Scotland were less likely to experience crime in 2019-20 than those living in England and Wales.
Mr Brown, pictured right, said: “Although that progress is encouraging, the stability in violent crime levels over recent years highlights that more needs to be done.
“The Scottish Government is clear that any act of violence is one too many, and in 2022-23 we are providing additional funding of 14 per cent to the violence reduction unit to support increased violence prevention activities.
“We continue to work with Police Scotland and other partners to prevent violent crime, including through the work of Medics Against Violence and delivery of the hospital navigator service.”
However, West of Scotland Tory Jamie Greene told MSPs: “The latest figures show that, since April last year, there have been 8,200 violent crime incidents. We are now on track to reach a record high. In fact, violent crime has risen in every single year since Nicola Sturgeon was made First Minister—I have it all here in black and white.
“That is not a record to be proud of. What substantive work has taken place to identify the root causes behind the rise in violent crime in Scotland? Given that many countries often look to us for our efforts against violence, why are things now going in the wrong direction?
Minister Keith Brown hit back: “Jamie Greene completely disregards the point that I made about the reduction in homicides to their lowest level since 1976 and the reduction that we have seen since 2006-07. There have been huge reductions that have been substantially higher than those in England and Wales, such that people in Scotland are much less likely, and feel themselves to be much less likely, to become victims of violent crime.
“However, as I have acknowledged, violent crime is a serious issue. We have dealt with it, and we continue to deal with it through, for example, the No Knives, Better Lives initiative, which has been deemed to have been extremely successful and is now copied in other parts of the United Kingdom, including London, where people have engaged with it.
“The annual crime statistics, which are the most accurate records, show that recorded crime remains at one of the lowest levels since 1974. Non-sexual crimes of violence fell by 4 per cent between 2019-20 and 2020-21.
“The most recent years have, of course, been affected by the pandemic, as they have been in all jurisdictions, and the falls in the levels of some crimes that we saw during the lockdown period have been followed by increases.
“We are very conscious of that, and we are taking forward a number of initiatives in relation to crimes of sexual violence and violent crimes more generally, such as No Knives, Better Lives, which I mentioned.”
Jamie Greene, right, replied: “The cabinet secretary has failed to accept that there is a problem, which itself is a problem. The reality is that, in 2014-15, there were 6,200 recorded cases of violent crime and, in 2019-20, there were 9,316 cases of violent crime. That is a massive increase.
“Let us be clear about what we are talking about: we are talking about serious assaults, attempted murders, domestic abuse and robberies.
“Those are life-changing events for the victims of those crimes. The Government is considering proposals to release criminals in prison after serving just a third of their sentence. How can that be justified in light of those shocking statistics? If it cannot, will the cabinet secretary now rule out that absurd idea?”
But Keith Brown told him: “Of course, you miss the fact that it was the Conservatives who brought in automatic early release and voted in the Parliament against ending automatic early release. We will therefore take no lessons from the Tories in relation to that.
“We will, of course, look seriously at the issues that the Conservatives have raised. Jamie Greene has quite rightly raised the issue of remand and our prisons. That is what the initiatives that we are taking forward, which are subject to consultation, seek to address. I would have hoped that we would have received some support from the Conservatives—if not support for what we intend to do, at least some ideas from them about what they would do in relation to remand.
“We have seen massive reductions in homicides and in the handling of offensive weapons. It is important to mention that the number of emergency admissions to hospitals due to assaults with a sharp object has fallen by 51 per cent from 2006-07 until now.
“It is also important that, as I mentioned previously, people in Scotland feel that they are less likely to be a victim of crime. We can bandy around the figures from here to eternity and mention different years or monthly statistics versus annual statistics, but the simple fact is that there is less crime in Scotland than there was when the Government came in, there is less crime in Scotland than there is in other parts of the UK and individuals feel that that is the case, there are more police officers who are better paid, and we have a very good track record on tackling crime across Scotland over the past 15 years.”
SNP member Audrey Nicoll challenged Jamie Greene’s statistics. She said: “The statistics that Mr Greene referred to show only half a picture. There are other forms of crime that are now at lower levels than they were in January 2020. According to the national statistics “Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2020-21” bulletin, recorded crime ‘remains at one of the lowest levels seen since 1974′.
“How is the Scottish Government ensuring the continued reduction in crimes of dishonesty, fire raising and vandalism, which have seen overall reductions since January 2020?”
Keith Brown claimed she was correct: “Audrey Nicoll is, of course, right that Jamie Greene’s question raised only a very small and partial part of the picture. Crimes of dishonesty and vandalism decreased in the latest year to their lowest levels since the 1970s. Jamie Greene did not mention that, of course.
“We are continuing to back that and other reductions in crime with our investment in front-line policing. We have increased police funding year on year since 2016-17, and we will invest £1.4 billion in 2022-23. Our investment amounts to more than £10 billion since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013 and has helped to ensure that officer numbers are 5.4 per cent higher than they were in 2007.
“Of course, despite the weeks and months that we have had of the Tories saying that there should be massive increases to the police and justice budgets, when it came to it they offered no amendment to the budget that this Government proposed.”
The Sheriff, Justice of the Peace and High Courts in Dumbarton.