Humza Yousaf

The data are based on a sample of around 2,700 telephone interviews conducted in September and October 2020 in a survey designed to be nationally representative of all private residential households in Scotland.

There were an estimated 445,000 incidents of crime experienced by adults in Scotland between September 2019 and September 2020, including incidents not reported to the police.

It is estimated that approximately three-in-five (61 per cent) crimes occurred before the start of the UK’s first national lockdown on the 23 March 2020, and two-in-five (39 per cent) occurred after that point. This suggests that crime fell significantly since the start of the UK’s first national lockdown (by around 35 per cent).

Just over half of people (54 per cent) felt that crime in their local area had stayed about the same since the start of the UK’s first national lockdown on the 23rd March 2020.

Around three-in-four (75 per cent) adults felt safe when walking alone in their local area after dark and most people (87 per cent) reported no change in how safe they felt walking alone in their local area after dark since the virus outbreak.

More than nine-in-ten (91 per cent) adults said that the Covid-19 pandemic had not changed how worried they felt about being a victim of crime. However, previous victims of crime felt more worried about being a victim of crime since the virus outbreak (19 per cent) compared with just 5 per cent of non-victims.

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “The report suggests that the number of crimes experienced by adults in Scotland fell by around 35 per cent following the start of the first UK lockdown, providing another indication of the profound impact the pandemic and actions taken to stop the virus’s spread has had on Scotland’s population and society.”