Scotland uses different words
Readers used to the term burglary will not find it in Scottish crime statistics. Scots law and Scottish police recording use housebreaking and related terms, and the difference affects how figures should be read. This article summarises two Scottish Government publications: the Scottish Crime Recording Standard rules for crimes of dishonesty (the 2023 to 2024 edition), which police use to decide how a crime is recorded, and the bulletin Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2025-26, which is labelled as Accredited Official Statistics. The definitions below are recording rules that describe the law for counting purposes, not the text of a statute. The article covers Scotland only. For England and Wales, see What Legally Counts as Burglary? The Theft Act 1968 Definition, Dwellings and Sentencing in England and Wales.
What housebreaking means in the recording standard
The standard says housebreaking is not a substantive crime on its own: there must also be a felonious intent, and it is associated only with theft, either as an aggravation of it or as the intent behind it. It explains that a “house” is not limited to a dwelling house. The term covers any other roofed building, finished or unfinished, and any part of a building used as a separate dwelling, that is secured against intrusion by unauthorised persons.
The standard adds that what must be overcome is the strength or security of the building, and that actual damage is not essential. The security is overcome whenever entry is made by what is not the usual or intended way in. For theft by housebreaking, the standard says it is not essential that the thief entered the building: the crime is complete if, for example, an article is drawn out with an implement.
Dwelling, non-dwelling and other
The standard applies one of three modifiers to housebreaking. A dwelling includes a house used or fit for residential purposes, an unfinished or renovated house that is roofed, has windows and doors fitted and can be secured, and a domestic garage that is an integral part of the house because a connecting door links the two. A non-dwelling covers roofed buildings used for domestic purposes other than dwellings, including domestic garages that are not integral, garden huts, garden sheds, allotment huts and outhouses. The remaining category is other, which covers roofed buildings not used for residential or domestic purposes, such as commercial premises.
The standard states that a compound, yard or field secured by a fence and a locked gate is not treated as a lockfast place for recording purposes. It also says that damage which may indicate an intent to break in is to be considered an attempted housebreaking with intent to steal unless the damage is more likely to be vandalism. Theft by opening lockfast places is a related but separate category, and where both occur in one incident the standard says only the most serious crime type is recorded.
What the 2025-26 figures report
The bulletin says the police recorded 315,357 crimes in Scotland in 2025-26, an increase of 5% on 2024-25, and that crimes of dishonesty rose 6% to 118,040. Within that group, the bulletin reports that recorded housebreaking fell 6%, from 7,381 to 6,968 crimes. Over the ten years from 2016-17 to 2025-26 it fell 57%, from 16,299 to 6,968. The bulletin adds that housebreaking has been in long-term decline since a peak of 116,130 recorded crimes in 1991 and is at its lowest level since 1971.
Theft by opening lockfast places fell 15% in the latest year, from 1,431 to 1,215 crimes, and 37% over ten years, from 1,940. The pattern is a broad fall in property-entry crime even while the bulletin reports overall recorded crime at its highest since 2014-15.
How to read the numbers
- Recorded crime is not all crime. The bulletin states that not all crimes are reported to or recorded by the police, so the statistics measure the volume of criminal activity the police face, not every incident.
- The count is offence-based. The bulletin explains that a house broken into and vandalised is recorded as housebreaking, which includes the vandalism, and that one incident can produce more than one recorded crime.
- Premises differ. Because the recording standard splits housebreaking into dwelling, non-dwelling and other premises, a single national housebreaking total does not by itself say how many family homes were entered.
- Cross-border comparison is loose. The categories and counting rules here are Scottish. Comparing the raw totals with figures for England and Wales, which are compiled under a different legal framework, needs care; the England and Wales position is discussed in How Many Homes Are Burgled? Reading the ONS Burglary Figures for England and Wales.
What this means for householders
The recording standard shows that outbuildings matter. A garden shed or non-integral garage counts as a non-dwelling for recording, so a break-in there is still housebreaking in Scottish statistics. Layered protection of outbuildings is covered in Shed, Garage and Garden Security: A Complete Practical Guide.
The bottom line
In Scotland the relevant term is housebreaking, defined in police recording rules as overcoming the security of a roofed building with intent to steal, and recorded as dwelling, non-dwelling or other. The Scottish Government’s 2025-26 bulletin reports 6,968 recorded housebreakings, down 6% on the year and 57% on ten years earlier, and the lowest level since 1971. Those figures describe crimes recorded by the police, not every incident, and they should not be set directly against burglary figures from other parts of the United Kingdom.
Sources
- Scottish Government, “Group 3 – Crimes of Dishonesty” (Scottish Crime Recording Standard: crime recording and counting rules 2023 to 2024)
- Scottish Government, “Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2025-26”
- Scottish Government, “Crimes of Dishonesty” (Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2025-26)
- Scottish Government, “Data and methodology” (Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2025-26)