To ask the Scottish Executive how many reports of (a) murder, (b) culpable homicide, (c) assault to severe injury, (d) assault and (e) offences involving the possession of a bladed weapon have been referred to the Procurator Fiscal in Perth in each of the last five years.
The information requested is set out in the following table. Information is not available for periods prior to April 2002
1.
Number of Charges Reported to the Procurator Fiscal at Perth2,3
Charge Group | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 |
a. Murder | 2 | 0 | 0 |
b. Culpable Homicide | 1 | 2 | 0 |
c. Assault to severe injury4 | 54 | 38 | 62 |
d. Assault4 | 788 | 908 | 1,262 |
e. Possession of bladed weapon5 | 24 | 21 | 35 |
Notes:
1. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service completed an upgrade of its electronic Case Management System in April 2002. Only case records created after that date contain complete data which is capable of electronic analysis. If a Procurator Fiscal amends a charge submitted by a reporting agency the database will record details only of the amended charge.
2. The information in this table has been extracted from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s Case Management Database. The database is a live, operational database used to manage the processing of reports submitted to procurators fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies.
3. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s Case Management Database is charge-based. The figures in the table therefore relate to the number of charges rather than the number of incidents that gave rise to such charges.
4. There are 124 separate charge codes containing the word “assault”. The results in this table are restricted to the following charges: Assault includes - assault; assault injury. Assault to Severe Injury includes - assault to danger of life; assault disfigurement; assault severe injury; assault severe injury and danger of life; assault to severe injury, disfigurement; assault to severe injury, disfigurement, danger of life; assault to severe injury, disfigurement, impairment; assault to severe injury, impairment; assault to severe injury, impairment, danger of life
5. The results in the table are restricted to offences under the following sections of the Criminal Law Consolidation (Scotland) Act 1995 – Section 49 (possession of a knife), Section 49A (possession of a knife in school premises), and Section 47 (possession of an offensive weapon). Charges under Section 47 have only been included where the weapon in question was a knife, an axe, scissors or an open blade razor. It should be noted however that 72% of the charge records for offences under Section 47 do not contain any code to categorise the weapon involved.