Motions, questions and answers

Police Scotland collate missing persons statistics and have provided information from the legacy National Missing Person Database and the current National Missing Person Application which is used to record data on missing people.
Prior to 2016 missing persons incidents recorded by the Police Scotland were recorded and broken down by police divisional areas not by individual local authorities. From 2016 Police Scotland has been recording and reporting both missing persons incidents and missing persons episodes.
A missing person incident is an instance where Police Scotland receive a call reporting a missing person and the incident is logged on the command and control system (STORM). A missing person episode is when someone is reported missing to Police Scotland and a police investigation is then initiated and recorded.
Therefore, depending on the circumstances, a missing person incident may or may not become a missing person episode, such as when someone is reported missing and found quickly without the need for a full investigation.
The information the member has asked for can be broken down as follows:
Missing Person Incidents recorded in each police division from 2010.
Police Division
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
North East
2 316
2 097
2 098
2 018
1 840
2 045
2 038
2 324
2 717
1 931
779
785
Tayside *
-
-
-
1 564
2 175
2 208
2 282
3 242
3 327
3 004
1 417
1 322
Highland and Islands
1 572
1 750
1 401
1 648
2 262
1 512
1 306
1 842
2 051
1 850
772
713
Forth Valley
2 214
2 085
1 969
1 793
2 085
1 955
1 730
2 088
2 202
2 253
1 230
992
Edinburgh
2 933
2 636
2 727
3 238
4 947
4 458
4 300
4 069
3 293
3 539
2 512
2 308
The Lothians and Scottish Borders
2 457
1 995
1 992
2 262
3 131
2 929
2 985
3 137
3 463
2 880
2 244
1 883
Fife
3 215
2 467
2 441
2 341
2 361
2 809
3 673
4 155
3 397
3 019
1 794
1 698
Greater Glasgow
6 979
6 646
5 831
5 378
6 432
5 749
6 501
6 792
6 306
4 907
2 552
2 221
Ayrshire
3 105
3 252
2 668
2 708
2 765
2 820
2 935
3 302
3 237
2 958
1 712
1 290
Lanarkshire
3 956
3 921
3 561
3 541
3 864
3 600
2 740
3 239
3 280
2 988
2 478
2 211
Argyll and West Dunbartonshire
975
914
800
858
1 042
923
947
1 326
1 626
849
337
374
Renfrewshire and Inverclyde
2 030
2 151
1 873
1 778
2 043
1 522
1 650
1 568
1 648
1 652
613
543
Dumfries and Galloway *
-
-
-
274
566
816
802
777
720
703
263
413
Total
31,752
29914
27,361
29,401
35,513
33,346
33,889
37,861
37,267
32,533
18,703
16,753
* Due to changes in how data has been recorded on police legacy systems it is not possible to identify data for those two Divisions from 2010 to 2013
Police Scotland have recorded missing episodes from 2016 which are broken down by local authority area:
Local Authority
2016-17
Children (17 and Under)
Adults (18 and over)
Total
Aberdeen City Council
553
472
1025
Aberdeenshire Council
193
136
329
Angus Council
286
77
363
Argyll and Bute Council
216
68
284
City of Edinburgh Council
2313
1597
3910
Clackmannanshire Council
78
23
101
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council)
3
21
24
Dumfries and Galloway Council
452
228
680
Dundee City Council
721
251
972
East Ayrshire Council
170
89
259
East Dunbartonshire Council
90
45
135
East Lothian Council
320
118
438
East Renfrewshire Council
29
32
61
Falkirk Council
144
158
302
Fife Council
1135
452
1587
Glasgow City Council
1466
1159
2625
Highland Council
539
440
979
Inverclyde Council
79
55
134
Midlothian Council
345
133
478
Moray Council
119
101
220
North Ayrshire Council
466
147
613
North Lanarkshire Council
1171
501
1672
Orkney Islands Council
6
18
24
Perth and Kinross Council
235
128
363
Renfrewshire Council
276
118
394
Scottish Borders Council
247
225
472
Shetland