Question reference: S4W-04247
- Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 24 November 2011
-
Current status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 1 December 2011
Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of recorded religious hate crimes in 2010-11 expressed as the number of incidents per 1,000 members of each religious affiliation.
Answer
The report Religiously Aggravated Offending in Scotland 2010-11 was published on 18 November 2011 and presented information on the number of religious aggravation charges (from Section 74 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003) that were reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) by the police in 2010-11. This report only presented information about the nature of the religious belief that was targeted through the offensive conduct and not about the religious affiliation of the victims of incidents.
The following table shows religious aggravations charges which were reported to COPFS in 2010-11 for conduct which was derogatory to each religious affiliation, and the number of charges per 1,000 members of each, as recorded in the 2001 census.
Religious aggravation charges derogatory to religion in Scotland in 2010-11 per 1,000 members:
|
Religion Targeted 1,2 |
Number of Charges 3 |
Number of Members (000)4 |
Charges per 1,000 Members |
|
Christianity 5 |
657 |
3,294.6 |
0.2 |
|
of which |
|
|
|
|
Roman Catholicism 6 |
400 |
803.7 |
0.5 |
|
Protestantism 6 |
253 |
2,146.3 |
0.1 |
|
Judaism |
16 |
6.4 |
2.5 |
|
Islam |
15 |
42.6 |
0.3 |
|
Unknown |
8 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Total |
696 |
- |
- |
Notes:
1. Information on religious aggravations charges is taken from Religiously Aggravated Offending in Scotland 2010-11, Scottish Government. Available online at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/11/17154035/0.
2. The number of charges refers to the religion that conduct was derogatory towards and not the number of charges where victims had the relevant affiliation. Information about victims’ religious affiliations are not recorded by the police.
3. There were 693 section 74 charges reported to COPFS in 2010-11 but some charges referred to conduct that was derogatory to more than one religious affiliation.
4. Religious group membership information data are taken from the 2001 census. Available online at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/02/20757/53570.
5. There were four charges included in the 657 charge total which referred to conduct which was offensive to Christianity in general and were not directed towards Protestantism or Roman Catholicism.
6. Membership is based on self-reporting in the 2001 census. Christian denominations are presented in the census as “Roman Catholic”, “Church of Scotland” and “other Christian”. For the purpose of this table only “Church of Scotland” membership has been attributed as “Protestant” because “other Christian” may include a mixture of Protestant and non-Protestant denominations. This may lead to an under-reporting of the “charges by 1,000 members” in the protestant category.