Chou Turvey responds to recorded crime increases

Responding to a 7% increase in recorded crime in the first six months of 2026 compared to the same period the previous year, including sexual crimes rising by 9%, crimes of dishonesty by 10% and crimes of shoplifting by 20%, Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Yi-pei Chou Turvey MSP said:

“These figures illustrate the enormous demand on police officers and our wider justice system.

“Scotland’s police service is being asked to perform miracles, despite officer numbers plummeting and stations across the country closing.

“The Scottish Government need to make sure officers are well-resourced to do their jobs, helping to prevent crime and allowing investigations to be properly carried out.

“Ministers must also step up efforts to bring down overcrowding in prisons so that we can successfully rehabilitate people and cut the rate of reoffending.”

On the number of domestic abuse crimes increasing by 19% in the first six months of 2026 compared to the same period the previous year, and by 81% compared to the same period in 2022, Yi-pei Chou Turvey added:

“This extremely disturbing increases raises a lot of questions about whether enough is being done to tackle domestic abuse.

“The Scottish Government have dragged their heels over implementing important domestic abuse protections that were passed by parliament over five years ago. These delays fall utterly short of what we need to protect victims and survivors.

“If tackling violence against women and girls is to be more than a nice soundbite for John Swinney, he will need to start translating his words into action.”