Violent crime convictions up

Scottish government figures indicate a 21 per cent year-on-year increase in convictions for non-sexual violent crime, with the total figure standing at 2,142 in 2019/20.

Almost 1,300 people were found guilty of attempted murder or serious assault – the highest figures since 2011/12, while 410 people were convicted of robbery.

Will Linden, deputy director of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, said it is likely that the increase in 2019/20 was a “blip”.

“The reality with violence just now is that we’ve got a consistently high level,” he said.

“It’s been consistent from about 2015/16. It’s just that 2018/19 was a particularly bad year.

“However, it wasn’t consistent across Scotland. For example Glasgow – which is always a main driver of violent crime in Scotland – showed very little change that year, whereas you had increases in Edinburgh and the Borders. Glasgow had an increase in robberies, whereas Edinburgh had a decrease, so there wasn’t a consistent picture for the country in terms of what was happening in that period.

“But what we’ve seen since is a decrease back down again so that year might just have been a blip.”

He added: “You’ve got different factors such as the introduction of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act, a slight increase in robbery, a slight increase in attempted murder and serious assault, so there are a number of different factors that have caused that big jump, but the corresponding increase in violence wasn’t as high as 21 per cent.”