5. Q4 2025-26 - North Ayrshire Performance Report
North Ayrshire Council · 15 June 2026
Back to Police and Fire and Rescue Committee — 15 June 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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North Ayrshire Performance Report OFFICIAL Safer communities, less crime, supported victims and a thriving workforce. Quarter 4 :1st April 2025 to 31st March 2026
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North Ayrshire Performance Report Safer communities, less crime, supported victims and a thriving workforce. OFFICIAL Our Local Policing Priorities • Serious Crime • Safer Communities • Violence Against Women & Girls • Community Wellbeing • Road Safety Introduction As the Local Policing Commander for Ayrshire, I am pleased to present the performance report for North Ayrshire 2025/26. Overall incidents in North Ayrshire are down by the end of Q4 (year end) from 37,531 this time last year, to 35,054 by the end of March 2026. This is a drop of 7.6% with a further decrease of 6.3% on the 5-year average. Overall crime has risen 5.7% within this reporting period; however, I am pleased to report that is in the main due to proactive policing of our road networks. Now that we are heading into the summer months our officers and staff continue to work hard, focussing on local policing priorities across North Ayrshire and engaging with communities to instil trust and confidence. As always, I want to thank partners for working with us to make North Ayrshire communities a safer place to live, work and thrive. Policing continues to face challenges our officers and staff have continued to work hard, flexing resources to meet demands. Chief Superintendent Suzanne Chow
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Overview Safer communities, less crime, supported victims and a thriving workforce. OFFICIAL Violence CYTD: 1767 PYTD: 1881 % Change Prev Year: -6.1% Drugs Supply CYTD: 77 PYTD: 85 % Change Prev Year: -9.4% -19.6% Sexual Crimes CYTD: 384 PYTD: 344 % Change Prev Year: +11.6% Serious Organised Crime ASB CYTD: 6588 PYTD: 7040 % Change Prev Year: -6.4% Hate Crime CYTD: 105 PYTD: 138 % Change Prev Year: -23.9% Domestic Abuse CYTD: 1755 PYTD: 1787 % Change Prev Year: -1.8% Safer Communities Acquisitive Crime CYTD: 2,386 PYTD: 2,410 % Change Prev Year: -1% Robbery CYTD: 38 PYTD: 34 % Change Prev Year: +11.8% Acquisitive Crime Road Traffic Offences CYTD: 3,346 PYTD: 2,462 % Change Prev Year: +35.9% Fatal & Serious Injury CYTD: 4/32 PYTD: 3/42 % Change Prev Year +33.3% and -23.8% Road Safety
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Serious Crime Safer communities, less crime, supported victims and a thriving workforce. OFFICIAL Violent Crime - Violent Crime has decreased by 6.1% on the previous year to date and is down from 1881 to 1767 incidents. Homicides remain at 2 meaning there have been no further homicides within the Q4 reporting period. Serious Assaults have decreased by 16.9% on last year from 71 to 59 and decreased by 16.9% on the 5-year average (5-year average being 71). Robberies have increased slightly from last year (34 PYTD to 38 CYTD) an increase of 11.8%. The 5-year average is 37 for the end of Q4 meaning that this is still inline with the previous 5 years. Drug Related Crime – Between 1st January 2026 and 31st March 2026, 30 search warrants were executed, 25 were positive, 7 resulted in supply charges. During Q4 drug supply (including possession with intent to supply) has shown a decrease of 9.4% on the previous year to date dropping from 85 to 77 offences. Recognising this, we have continued to increase our proactive activity around this crime type. During the reporting period (end of Q4) there have been 569 offences relating to possession of a controlled drug compared to 586 this time PYTD, therefore a decrease of 2.9%. Our focus remains on this area to reduce the harm drugs cause across all communities. Violent Crime - Robbery is a violent and unacceptable crime to have on our streets. Each robbery is scrutinised closely by CID and the Local Area Commander. There have been no emerging patterns identified. This quarter a female was assaulted, threatened with scissors and a screwdriver then robbed of her mobile phone in Irvine, diligent investigations from our team using CCTV footage resulted in the accused being arrested. The prevention and investigation of violent crime remains a priority for the directed tasking of North Ayrshire officers. We remain focussed on reducing serious assaults and robberies, directing resources towards specific areas, addressing anti social behaviour issues which tend to increase at this time of year, and safeguarding our communities. Drug Related Crime - Increased focus on intelligence gathering and stop and search continues to be integral to our efforts to reduce drug harm in North Ayrshire. Collaboration with both external and internal partners allows us to continue to focus on the serious and organised crime structure surrounding drug activity in the area. Furthermore, there is an awareness of the UK wide problem surrounding county lines and how this may or may not feed into drug activity in North Ayrshire. Information from our communities is key to understanding this picture. Officers from our teams had a recent successful detection for drugs in Irvine - 94 wraps crack, 249g cocaine with a combined value £9640 were recovered.
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Sexual Crimes (incl. VAWG) Safer communities, less crime, supported victims and a thriving workforce. OFFICIAL Sexual Crime - Overall, sexual crime has shown an increase of 11.6% since last year and an increase of 22.6% in the 5-year average. Rape - Recorded Rape crimes have reduced by 6.5% from 62 last year to 58 this year. Furthermore, the detection rate for Rape has risen by 2.1%. There continues to be focused attention on this area of policing and safeguarding. Sexual Assaults - Have risen from 134 recorded incidents PYTD to 154 incidents by the end of Q4 - CYTD. Officers continue to investigate such crimes robustly to identify perpetrators. However, there is also continued work by our Preventions, Campus and Local Policing officers focussing on educating our young people on behaviours that are not acceptable and should be reported to education staff and/or police. Throughout the school calendar year Campus Officers continue to deliver inputs on sextortion, misogyny, and online safety. Causing to view sexual activity or images – There has been a decrease again this quarter in crimes involving causing to view sexual activity or images. This has dropped by 14% from 57 (PYTD) to 49 (CYTD) and by 7.9% on the 5-year average – 53 crimes. Sexual Crime - Locality Policing (community and campus) officers continue to work proactively to reduce the number of victims of sexual crime and encourage a safe space in which to report. This is predominantly undertaken by educating our young people in schools particularly with increasing awareness of online sexual crime and highlighting behaviours that are deemed unacceptable and illegal. Dedicated Public Protection officers are also based in North Ayrshire with their primary focus being to investigate sexual offences. They are supported by specialist officers from national divisions who provide further expertise when required. Close collaboration with partners including the Violence Against Women and Girls network strengthens prevention and early intervention focussing on healthy relationships, consent and tackling relationship abuse.
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Safer Communities Safer communities, less crime, supported victims and a thriving workforce. OFFICIAL Domestic Abuse Incidents - have decreased by 1.8% compared to the previous year. Officers in North Ayrshire attended 1755 domestic incidents up until the end of the Q4 reporting period, 776 of which were domestic related crimes (44.2%). This slight decrease is in contrast with the National Figures which presents a slight rise in reported domestic incidents. Proactive policing of domestic bail requirements has resulted in detections in the PYTD being 119 and the CYTD remaining similar at 104. Furthermore, we continue to support and protect victims throughout their criminal justice journey. Anti-Social Behaviour - Incidents have decreased by 6.4% on the previous year to date, with overall ASB calls to police reducing from 7040 to 6588 incidents and are down 7.1% on the 5-year average. CYTD there have been 907 intelligence lead stop searches conducted within North Ayrshire with 274 resulting in a positive outcome (30.2%). A slight decrease on the previous year of 1033 and 308 (29.8%) however focus has been on educating officers in identifying those likely to be committing ASB offences or crimes involving criminal possession of weapons or drugs. Hate Crimes recorded for Q4 have decreased on the previous year from 138 to 105 which is a 23.9 % decrease. The detection rate has decreased slightly from last year with 2025/26 = 66.7% and 2024/25 = 70.3%, a decrease of 3.6%. The most common offences continue to be racially aggravated and disablist incidents. Domestic Abuse Crimes - remain a daily operational focus, ensuring victims are protected, supported and confident to report to police. Disclosure Scheme for Domestic Abuse Scotland (DSDAS) referrals in North Ayrshire for the Q4 period (156 disclosures made) continue to rise, demonstrating the commitment and effectiveness of the Domestic Abuse Safeguarding Team. Anyone concerned that their partner has an abusive past or that their partner may harm them can make an application under the Right to Ask (RTA) pathway of the DSDAS. There has been an increase this year of 205 RTA submissions. Right to Ask applications can also be made by third parties such as a parent, relative, neighbour or friend if they are concerned about the safety of someone they know. Anti-Social Behaviour – Excellent partnership work between Police Scotland, North Ayrshire Council and our Safer Shores group continues to contribute to the reduction of overall ASB across our communities. As we fast approach the better weather, we have already commenced our joint working group. Safer Shores commenced earlier in mid- March recognising that better weather alongside spring holidays can often mean that prevention of anti-social behaviour must start sooner than in previous years. Further joint working with management at the Rivergate Centre aims to identify and safeguard young people who come to the attention of police and other partner agencies. Effective partnership work between Police Scotland and Norh Ayrshire Council continues to the reduction of overall anti-social behaviour across the communities. This year we have also seen a significant positive impact from the investment of the new CCTV in the harbour area of Irvine.
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Acquisitive Crime Safer communities, less crime, supported victims and a thriving workforce. OFFICIAL Acquisitive Crime - Overall Acquisitive crime has decreased by 1% on the previous year dropping from 2410 incidents to 2386 incidents. To date there has also been a decrease of 1.6% in the 5-year average which sits at 2425. Theft by Housebreaking - It is positive to see a significant decrease of 28% (75 down to 54) in theft by housebreaking on the previous year to date and furthermore a decrease of 48.8% on the 5-year average (105 crimes). Retail Crime – By the end of Q4, theft by shoplifting continued to increase rising by 7.8%. (1048 PYTD – 1130 CYTD) and by 31.2% on the 5-year average of 861 crimes. This remains an increasingly frustrating but an important area of focus for policing, where we continue to work alongside retailers around prevention measures. We continue to target repeat offenders requesting the relevant bail conditions to restrict opportunities to re-offend once detected and charged. It is important to not that this is a national issue and Ayrshire are leading the way in areas of prevention and detection of repeat offenders. Acquisitive crime.- North Ayrshire officers continue to use data analyse, intelligence gathering, and high visibility policing to identify areas which may be susceptible to housebreakings or vehicle crimes. Currently no particular patterns can be established with most incidents being in isolation. Prevention and Local Policing (Community) Officers continue to give advice on securing domestic and commercial property and vehicles. Added lighting, doorbell cameras, neighbourhood awareness and communication all assist in preventing as well as detecting these incidents. In this quarter there was a theft of a motor vehicle from Beith which resulted in extensive cross-border enquires with Greater Glasgow Division. Utilising ANPR and CCTV officers located the motor vehicle in the Glasgow area before successfully returning it to the owner. Retail – Collectively across the three local authority areas, we continue to focus on retail related thefts and associated disorder. Our Preventions and Interventions Officer continues to work closely with retailers to ensure that preventative measures and security protocols are in place. As a division, all 3 Local Area Commanders maintain a joint approach to identify repeat offender and trends throughout Ayrshire enabling early identification of perpetrators. Ayrshire officers continue to request Undertaking or Court- imposed bail conditions to prevent offenders from entering the premises where such offences occur. However, it is imperative that retailers continue to acknowledge and implement preventative measures to deter offenders from this crime type. Further funding has been secured to enable North Ayrshire officers to deploy directed patrols to prevent and assist retailers.
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Road Safety Safer communities, less crime, supported victims and a thriving workforce. OFFICIAL Road Safety - Road Traffic Offences increased from 2462 PYTD to 3346 in the CYTD – a rise of 35.9%. There was also a 31.3% increase on the 5-year average from 2547 to 3346 offences. Whilst there have been 4 fatalities this year there were no fatalities in North Ayrshire for quarter 4 compared to 1 for the same period last year. Serious injury RTCs on our North Ayrshire roads have decreased from 42 the previous year to date to 32 this year – a drop of 23.8%. Speeding offences have increased from 332 (PYTD) to 579 (CYTD). A considerable increase of 74.4% which shows the level of proactivity by North Ayrshire officers in conjunction with our Roads Policing colleagues. Careless driving offences have also increased slightly by 15.5% from 238 (PYTD) to 275 (CYTD). Road safety remains a priority in North Ayrshire with the focus throughout the reporting period being on proactivity, using Local Policing and specialised support from Road Policing teams to detect and deter. Road Traffic proactivity is centred around the ‘Fatal 5’ most common factors that cause fatal road traffic collisions (speeding, seatbelt use, distractions, drink/drug driving and careless driving). Analysis of police data, proactive policing, and educating drivers and other road users in behaviours helps to drive road safety and importantly reduces serious injury and fatalities on our road network. Officers have detected 100 offenders driving under the influence of drink or drugs in the reporting period, an increase of 63% from PYTD of 59. Of these numbers, 65 of offenders failed a drugs wipe at the roadside, which evidences the prevalence of drug driving. However, this increase indicates that officers are using their powers efficiently to detect these offences. There were 130 speeding offence detections in the reporting period, an increase of 37% from PYTD of 95. Ayrshire Division and Roads Policing are supported by analysts to target the correct roads at the correct times to ensure activity has the greatest impact to reduce casualties. Officers have detected 19 offenders who have failed to wear seatbelts during their routine patrols in this reporting period. This is an increase of 171% from PYTD of 7. Officers will continue to enforce these offences robustly as failure to wear a seatbelt can reduce the chances of survival by 50% in the event of a collision (Road Safety Scotland).
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Community Wellbeing Safer communities, less crime, supported victims and a thriving workforce. OFFICIAL Protecting the most Vulnerable – During Q4 (1st January 2026 - 31st March 2026) officers in North Ayrshire submitted 1423 concern reports for individuals in the reporting period. 545 related to vulnerable adults and 697 related to child concerns (some repeat reports). Concern reports are triaged by officers and shared with various partners where required, ensuring a multi-agency approach to reducing vulnerability through partnership work. In Q4, 1021 incidents were shared with various partner agencies. The total number of concern reports submitted for the year to date is 5753 with 2812 relating to children and 2239 relating to adults. Protecting the most vulnerable members of society is vital in North Ayrshire. Missing People – Between 1st January and 31st March 2026 North Ayrshire officers dealt with 60 reports of Missing People. This is a total of 318 by the end of Q4. During Q4, 28 of the reports were adults and 32 related to persons under the age of 18 years old. By way of a further analysis, 1 was from a local authority children’s house, 4 from privately owned children’s houses and the remaining 27 were from their home addresses. 6 Missing person reports identified patients missing from hospital (Woodlands View). Our evidence led and risk focused approach allows us to focus resources to the greatest areas of need and vulnerability. Protecting the most Vulnerable - Between 1st January and 31st March 2026, North Ayrshire Preventions and Interventions, alongside North Ayrshire Trading Standards department, took part in several targeted operations involving the seizure of counterfeit cigarettes and fake vape products from shops throughout North Ayrshire. The owners of the shops were subsequently fined. Preventative work was carried out, visiting several libraries in North Ayrshire providing help and advice to vulnerable members of the community on scams and fraud. The North Ayrshire Antisocial Behaviour officer continues to work with the North Ayrshire Antisocial Behaviour Investigation Team (ASBIT) preparing case conference documents and sharing information on noise, disturbance, public nuisance and neighbour dispute incidents. Working alongside North Ayrshire CCTV, officers have been able to identify young people involved in antisocial behaviour within North Ayrshire. In collaboration with ASBIT police have conducted joint interviews with parents of the young people involved in antisocial behaviour. Missing People - Work in North Ayrshire also remains ongoing to reduce the number of missing people from Children’s Houses. Working with the Children’s Houses and Social Work is vital in protecting young people in the community. Missing and vulnerable people remain part of the core daily business of Response Policing. When there is a missing or concern for person within North Ayrshire, our operational supervisors clearly understand the risk and the importance around keeping people safe and protected. Resourcing these incidents is intense and focussed to bring these situations to a safe conclusion. This year we spent 31,254 resourcing hours searching for missing people in North Ayrshire.
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North Ayrshire Specially Trained Officers (STOs) (Q4) - 1st January 2026 – 31st March 2026 (% figures represent a Divisional comparison) 4.5% 4.0% PS27 – STO not tasked to incident PS28 – STO tasked to incident PS29 – No STO available to attend OFFICIAL Under 18 use: Aim: Male 17yrs: No weapon: Arrested MDA 1981 Self- Harm Non Self- Harm National 27 229 UA Sub Div 4 8 Self-Harm Incidents 14.8 % 3.5% PS2 7 PS2 8 PS2 9 National 126 494 21 UA Sub Div 7 28 1 Deployment Incidents 0 50 100 150 U 18 18- 30 31- 64 65 + National 16 78 147 2 UA Sub Div 1 5 3 2 Subject Age 0 50 100 150 200 250 White BME Not Stated National 237 11 8 UA Sub Div 11 0 1 Subject Defined Ethnicity Total Uses National: 256 UA Sub Div: 12 (4.69%) Draw National: 98 UA Sub Div: 6 (6.12%) Aimed National: 47 UA Sub Div: 3 (6.38%) Red Dot National: 87 UA Sub Div: 3 (3.45%) Arc Display National: 8 UA Sub Div: 0 (0.00%) Discharged National: 16 UA Sub Div: 0 (0.00%) 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 Yes No Percieve d National 109 55 92 UA Sub Div 5 6 1 Weapons Presented Subject Sex 220 1 0 Male National UA Sub… 25 1 FemaleWeapons Presented at Officers include: Knives (4) & Razor Blade (1) 4.6% 10.9% 1.1% 4.6% 0.0% 12.5% 4.8% 5.7% 5.6% 6.3% 6.4% 2.0% 100%
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North Ayrshire Performance Report Safer communities, less crime, supported victims and a thriving workforce. OFFICIAL Our Local Policing Priorities • Serious Crime • Safer Communities • Violence Against Women & Girls • Community Wellbeing • Road SafetyE sco SPOTLIGHT – Police Scotland Youth Volunteers (PSYV) Police Scotland Youth Volunteers (PSYV) was devised by the then Prince Charles as a way of connecting young people (aged 13-18) in communities with the police, whilst encouraging good citizenship and providing volunteering opportunities. The first group in Scotland (the flagship) commenced at Dumfries House in Cumnock in 2014, with a further 3 Ayrshire groups added since; Ayr, Kilmarnock and Saltcoats. The Saltcoats PSYV group started in 2018. The Saltcoats PSYV group meets on a Tuesday evening at the Training Station and consists of 20 young people and 4 Adult Volunteers. The Adult Volunteers, who are not police officers, are supported by the PSYV Divisional Co-ordinator, PC Fiona Gibson. Members come from all backgrounds and often include care experienced and neurodiverse young people. Over the last year, members from Saltcoats PSYV group have completed a combined total of 900 volunteering hours at events such as Marymass, Segdoune Gala Day, Dalry Agricultural Show, Eglinton Park Care Experienced Day, ‘Reclaim the Night’ and Irvine Beach Clean Up to name a few. In addition to this, members have assisted in collecting for the Poppy Appeal and Beatson Cancer Charity, as well as having opportunities further afield at the International Air Show and the Edinburgh Tattoo. Two youth volunteers have completed 500 hours of individual volunteering since joining PSYV. One young person has been recognised for his efforts by being awarded a place at an international youth conference in Budapest, one of only 6 young people from Scotland picked to attend. Another is being rewarded with a special recognition award for volunteering at over 130 events and achieving over 700 volunteering hours, the highest of all Ayrshire PSYV groups. Many of the PSYV members work towards recognised awards, such as the Saltire Award for volunteering or Progression Awards, all of which are presented at an end of year ceremony held at Dumfries House. Over the next year, PSYV in Saltcoats will recruit new youth volunteers and will continue to volunteer within communities in North Ayrshire.