| ANNEX |
| Notes
on Statistics Used in this Bulletin |
| Scope
of bulletin |
| |
| 1.
The offences covered in the analyses presented in this
bulletin are those classified as motor vehicle offences
in The Scottish Office Home Department’s
classification of crimes and offences. Due to variations
in police recording practice, offences of dangerous
driving and careless driving have been combined in tables
of recorded offences but are shown separately in tables
of offences proceeded against. The offence of reckless
driving was replaced with the offence of dangerous
driving in the Road Traffic Act 1991, brought into force
in July 1992. |
| |
| 2.
Certain crimes related to motor vehicles, namely causing
death by dangerous driving, causing death by careless
driving while under the influence of drink or drugs and
reckless driving (common law), are excluded from the
tables in this bulletin primarily because information on
these crimes are not collected on the same basis as other
motor vehicle offences. In 1997, the police recorded 35
crimes of causing death by dangerous driving, 2 crimes of
causing death by careless driving when under the
influence of drink or drugs and 6 crimes of reckless
driving (common law). In 1997, there were 17 prosecutions
where the main offence was causing death by dangerous
driving, 16 of which resulted in a conviction including
14 custodial sentences. There were 4 prosecutions for
causing death by careless driving while under the
influence of drink or drugs, all of which resulted in a
conviction including 3 custodial sentences. There were no
prosecutions for reckless driving (common law) in 1997. |
| |
| Sources
of information |
| |
| 3.
The statistical return from which the figures on recorded
motor vehicle offences in this bulletin are taken is a
simple count of the numbers of crimes and offences
recorded by the police. The 8 Scottish forces are
included; other police forces, such as the British
Transport Police, are not. One return is made for each
council area in Scotland and these are aggregated to give
the national total. The return is submitted quarterly and
gives the information as known at the end of each
quarter. Thus amendments (such as the deletion of
incidents found on investigation not to be criminal)
which arise at the end of the year are not incorporated. |
| |
| 4.
Most motor vehicle offences are discovered and recorded
as a result of police activity rather than by being
reported to the police by the public. Hence the numbers
of such offences recorded are mainly determined by the
strength and deployment of the police forces. |
| |
| 5.
Information on the outcome of prosecutions of motor
vehicle offences is mainly provided by the police forces
to The Scottish Office through monthly statistical
returns. Details of a relatively small number of cases
also come from the police operational computer at the
Scottish Criminal Record Office. |
| |
| 6.
In this bulletin, statistics on court proceedings count
offences proceeded against i.e. when a person is
proceeded against in court for more than one charge, each
charge is counted. This practice differs from that
adopted in the statistical bulletins on court proceedings
in which the unit of analysis is the person or company
proceeded against. The year recorded in the statistics on
court proceedings is the year in which the case was
disposed of, e.g. if the accused was convicted in 1996
but not sentenced until 1997, the year quoted in these
tables is 1997. Similarly, in some cases the year
recorded in the recorded crime statistics will not be the
same as the year of the court proceedings, e.g. a crime
may be recorded in 1996 but the person involved may not
be prosecuted, convicted and sentenced for the offence
until 1997 or later. It is also possible that the offence
recorded by the police may be altered as a result of the
judicial proceedings, while many offences are dealt with
by means other than prosecution, for example through the
use of procurator or police conditional offers of fixed
penalty. Statistics of court proceedings are therefore
not directly comparable with the recorded crime
statistics. |
| |
| 7.
Disqualification from driving necessarily involved
endorsement of a driving licence. However, for simplicity
of presentation, the figures quoted in the bulletin for
endorsement do not include disqualifications. |
| |
| 8.
Information on procurator fiscal conditional offers made
for motor vehicle offences are derived from summary data
collected by the Crown Office from procurators fiscal.
The figures for 1995, 1996 and 1997 include estimates. |
| |
| 9.
Information on police conditional offers made for motor
vehicle offences are based on figures provided by police
force traffic departments. |
| |
| 10.
Separate statistical returns to The Scottish Office are
made by the police forces for the number of offences
dealt with under the vehicle defect rectification scheme
and the number of "stationary" offences dealt
with by the issue of a fixed penalty notice by the police
or traffic wardens. These are normally submitted once a
year and one return is made for each police force area. |
| |
| Notation |
| |
| 11.
The following symbols are used throughout the tables in
this bulletin: |
| |
| -
Nil |
*
Less than 0.5 |
| |
| Revisions
to previously published figures |
| |
| 12.
A minor correction has been made to the computer program
used to produce the figures included in Table 8b of
bulletin CrJ/1998/5, Motor Vehicle Offences in
Scotland, 1995-1996, which was published in August
1998. Only a few of the figures in the table are
affected, as follows: |
| |
| Motor
vehicle offences proceeded against in court by type of
offence and result, 1996 |
