Police Scotland has published its third weekly summary on Hate Crime and Incident Reporting, revealing online reporting continued to drop by over 70 per cent this week. Online reporting in week three saw a total of 390 reports, down significantly from the first week high of over 7000 reports. Of these 390 online reports, 356 were reported anonymously.

An additional 23 reports were made via telephone and Contact Us.

There were 26 non crime hate incidents recorded in week three - the same number as was recorded in the same week last year, prior to the new legislation being introduced on 1 April 2024.

The number of reports meeting the threshold for recording as a hate crime has continued to fall:

• 232 in week one
• 200 in week two
• 193 in week three

The major crime aggravator remains race, followed by sexual orientation and disability. This pattern is the same as hate crime reporting in previous years. Geographical analysis of hate crimes recorded in the first three weeks shows the highest levels of crimes recorded in the large population centres of Greater Glasgow and Edinburgh.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Police Authority said:

“The third week of published Police Scotland management data records a continued drop in reporting. The Authority welcomes that reduction.

"This provides visibility of the impact of the new Hate Crime legislation which Police Scotland has managed through contact centres with minimal impact on frontline policing. Ongoing trend analysis of this demand will provide a longer term view of the impact on policing in Scotland.”