Police Scotland Freedom of Information Response reference: FOI 25-2116
21/10/2026
Clarification was sought due to the difficulty associated with reconciling information disclosed about vehicle thefts. The matters raised and answers provided are as follows;
About the data supplied (2024 – LoS records)
1. I do not understand why about 160 VRMs have a ‘recovered’ flag but no recovered year or month. I provide comment here – can you clarify this.
Police Scotland response:
As you will be aware, Freedom of Information legislation provides a right of access to recorded information only and not to comment or opinion.
To be of assistance, I can however advise you that the date recovered field is not mandatory, and that the variance is likely due to officers marking the vehicle as recovered but not entering a date.
2. 16 vehicles reported stolen in 2024 were recovered in 2023 – can you
explain/clarify this.
Police Scotland response:
As you will be aware, Freedom of Information legislation provides a right of access to recorded information only and not to comment or opinion.
To be of assistance, I can however advise you that the errors are likely due to mistakes when inputting the date into the system.
A. what software do you use for recording motor vehicle theft events
Police Scotland use UNIFI for recording all crime reports, including motor vehicle theft. It is important to note that UNIFI was fully rolled out nationally as of December 2023, meaning that there is a difference between data Police Scotland can provide from January 2024 onward and any earlier period.
B. what are the readily retrievable fields and
In relation to motor vehicle crime, these would include various fields regarding location and the biographical details of parties involved, as well as the make/ model of the vehicle and whether it was recovered or not, as well as relevant dates. The make/ model/ recovery details are not however mandatory fields.
C. Whether you can identify theft allegations that were no-crimed i.e. transpired, were not a crime in particular, considered false allegations.
It is possible to provide data on crime reports recorded but subsequently marked as ‘no crime’. It should be noted however that these reports as not sub-categorised in relation to the reasons for the ‘no-crime’ decision.
Original response: