Police Scotland have today published  the Q1 Management Information for 2017/18 which can be accessed here.

Deputy Chief Constable Iain Livingston has responded to this publication. He said: “Following a proposal from Police Scotland to the Scottish Crime Recording Board (SCRB), we now record a separate crime for possession of a weapon when used in the commission of a crime. ”

“This change is to allow us to understand fully the complete picture of weapon use and possession across Scotland and help us improve the work we all do to tackle knife crime.

“This change will provide us with a more complete picture of the problem and crucially, allow us to better target our resources in response. It is an important step to improve our understanding of the complexity of the issue.

“Before 1st April 2017, as offensive weapons crimes were subsumed into main crimes (e.g. Serious Assaults), this change to recording practices has had an impact on the volume of overall crime.”

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John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.