SEX crimes in Scotland have jumped to their highest level in more than half a century, increasing by 15 per cent last year, according to official figures.

Despite an overall drop in recorded crime recorded by Police Scotland, the number of sexual crimes rose from, 13,131 to 15,049, their highest total since 1971.

Non-sexual crimes of violence rose 12 per cent, up from 61,913 to 69,826, last year.

Opposition parties said the Scottish Government’s plans to impose real-terms cuts of 8 per cent on the justice system over the next four years would make the problem worse.

SNP Finance Secretary Kate Forbes last month announced a prolonged freeze on the police and court budgets in cash terms, meaning deep cuts with inflation soaring.

There were also an estimated 14,280 cyber-crimes recorded by police in Scotland. 

However the Scottish Government insisted that with total recorded crime overall at the lowest level since 1974, “Scotland continues to be a safe place to live”.

The statistics for 2021/22 showed sexual crimes accounted for 5% of all offences reported in Scotland last year, with the official report noting this continued a “long-term, upward trend”.

According to the data, cases of rape and attempted rape rose by 9% to 2,498 last year – accounting for almost one in five (17%) of all reported sexual crimes.

The number of sexual crimes that were cyber crimes is estimated to have risen from 1,100 in 2013-14 to 4,210 in 2021/22, with the report noting: “The increase in sexual cyber-crimes has also had an impact on the trend of recorded sexual crimes in recent years.”

It said the “historical reporting of sexual crime also continues to play a role in the latest statistics”, with information from the police suggesting that almost a quarter (23%) of sexual crimes in 2021/22 were reported at least one year after they occurred.

Overall, the report said crimes recorded by the police in Scotland fell by 4% in 2021/22, going from 299,452 to 286,464 to reach the lowest level since 1974.

The fall was driven by a 81% reduction in crimes recorded under Coronavirus related legislation, with such crimes dropping from from 20,976 to 3,913.

Crimes of dishonesty accounted for almost a third (32%) of all recorded crime in 2021/22, with non-sexual crimes of violence amounting to 24%.

The report noted murder and culpable homicide “accounted for a very small proportion” of non-sexual crimes of violence, contributing less than 1% of non-sexual crimes of violence.

Tory Justice spokesman Jamie Greene MSPsaid: “These grim statistics confirm that violent and sexual crime is spiralling out of control under the SNP – with violent crime now reaching its highest ever level since Nicola Sturgeon became First Minister. 

 “And to make matters worse, the SNP have broken their manifesto promise to protect police funding, which will have disastrous impacts on public safety and make the job of the police impossible. 

 “It’s very telling that as she obsesses over plans for a divisive second independence referendum, Nicola Sturgeon has absolutely no plan to tackle violent crime which keeps rising under her reign. 

 “It is clearer than ever that justice and fighting crime is, disgracefully, no longer a priority for this SNP Government.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Liam McArthur criticised the planned wave of real-terms cuts to justice services after the figures were published.

He said: “The SNP are presiding over a wave of violent and sexual crime. It’s absolutely absurd that on the day that sex crimes hit their highest ever level, the SNP are prioritising spending millions on another campaign to break up the UK over keeping communities safe. 

“Even more shockingly, the government intends to spend the next five years cutting the budget for police and courts. This will hamstring investigations and hurt prosecutions. 

“People need to know that if they are attacked or burgled, they can go to the police and their case will be investigated. Right now, many may simply not see the point. 

“The Justice Secretary must ensure that Police Scotland has the tools it needs to go after fraudsters and cyber criminals.  During the pandemic we all spent more time online. 

“These figures suggest that that is true for criminals too. Technology is only going to keep evolving and Police Scotland and our laws must evolve with it.” 

Labour Justice spokesperson Pauline McNeill said: “These utterly horrifying figures require urgent action from the SNP and from every part of our justice system.

“It is appalling that the SNP are poised to slash police funding as sexual crimes soar to the highest point in decades.

“Making sure our communities are safe should be a top priority for the SNP government, but soaring rates of violent crime show they are failing badly.  

“We need immediate and meaningful action to tackle violent crime in Scotland and protect our justice system from the damage of SNP cuts.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Scotland continues to be a safe place to live. Recorded crime is at its lowest level since 1974, and considerably lower than a decade ago, with fewer victims. This includes crimes of dishonesty remaining at one of their lowest levels since 1971.

“The Scottish Government continues to invest in crime prevention and measures to tackle reoffending.

“More than £24 million has been invested into violence reduction programmes across Scotland since 2008, including over £16 million to support the work of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit and more than £4.5 million to No Knives, Better Lives.”

The spokesperson said “robust action” had been taken to help the authorities tackle sexual offending “by improving and making the operation of our sexual offence laws much clearer, providing the necessary funding to support law enforcement efforts to deal with sexual offending and by encouraging more victims of recent and historical cases to come forward”.

They continued: “Our Victim Centred Approach Fund will provide £48 million to 23 organisations across Scotland over the period of 2022 to 2025. This includes £18.5 million for specialist advocacy support for survivors of gender-based violence.

“Police officer numbers in Scotland also remain significantly up from 2007, and are favourable relative to elsewhere in the UK with around 32 officers per 10,000 population in Scotland compared to around only 23 officers per 10,000 population in England and Wales.”