Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report: June 2025
This report contains summary statistics covering a number of important justice and safer communities areas. It is updated with the most recently published statistics.
Numbers fell for police recorded hate crime. The police recorded 6,227 hate crimes in 2023-24. This is less than 1% (or 30) lower than in 2022-23 and the lowest number since 2014-15. No clear trend can be seen in the total number of hate crimes recorded by the police in Scotland over 2014-15 to 2022-23, with four of the years following 2014-15 showing an increase and the other five showing a decrease. In 2023-24, 63% of hate crimes included an aggravator for race, 24% sexual orientation, 10% disability, 7% religion and 3% transgender identity.
* New * Small decrease in overall hate crime charges. There was a decrease of 1.2% between 2023-24 and 2024-25, in the total number of charges reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service containing at least one element of hate crime. However, the figures for 2024-25 are not directly comparable with earlier years because they include new categories of hate crime and new charges introduced by the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. There were increases for disability hate crime charges. Race, religion and sexual orientation aggravated charges saw a decrease and transgender identity showed no change. Racial crime remains the most commonly reported hate crime, followed by crimes with a sexual orientation aggravator. Following the introduction of two new aggravators in the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, there were 88 charges reported with an aggravation of age and 13 charges reported with an aggravation of variations in sex characteristics.
Chart 6: Number of charges reported to COPFS – 2003-04 to 2024-25