Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service

27 September 2006

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has today issued the following media statement. A spokesperson for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said:

"Any letter received from Cardinal O'Brien will of course receive a full reply in due course.

"Clearly, both the police and the Procurator Fiscal service take all crimes which are aggravated by religious prejudice very seriously, regardless of the religion of those involved.

"The information published in 2004, which the Catholic Church in Scotland are referring to, was the result of detailed analysis which was conducted by the Crown Office at that time to provide an early indication of the impact of this new legislation.

"Since then we have published statistical information which can be routinely extracted from our case management database, and this was provided earlier this month in response to a Parliamentary Question.

"We remain happy to assist in any way we can in providing information on the impact of legislation which is designed to tackle religious hatred or bigotry.

"The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service continues to pursue a very robust prosecution policy on religiously aggravated crime, and this is demonstrated by recent statistics.

"Members of the public can be confident that any such incidents reported to the police will be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated."

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