Resolution Statement – 18742-17 Noble v Scottish Daily Mail

Summary of Complaint

1. Jamie Noble complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation that the Scottish Daily Mail breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice in an article headlined, “ One Serious crime every 30 minutes”, published on 27 September 2017.

2. The article reported that recent crime statistics showed that one violent or sexual crime is reported every 30 minutes in Scotland. The strapline of the article stated that, “As SNP tries to claim crime is at record low- by ignoring 288,000 offences- the shocking truth.” The article reported that while, overall, recorded crime figures fell by 3 per cent in 2016-17, the “SNP had failed to include nearly 300,000 offences in the tally.” It went on to state that these other offences, including common assault and motoring offences, that fall into this separate category of “offences” had also decreased.

3. The complainant said that the strapline of the article was inaccurate, as even if the number of crimes and offences were combined, the statistics were still lower than the year before, as both the number of crimes and offences had fallen. He also said that crime and offences had been recorded separately since the 1930’s, and therefore he believed it was misleading to state that the SNP had “failed to include” a large number of offences.

4. The newspaper did not accept it had breached the Code. It said that the main purpose of the article had been to question the practice of differentiation and exclusion of offences from recorded crimes, which was a legitimate subject of criticism. It said that the article had accurately reported that recorded crime and offences are at an all-time low, and had accurately reported the crime statistics.

Relevant Code provisions

5. Clause 1 (Accuracy)

i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text.

ii) A significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distortion must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence, and- where appropriate- an apology published. In cases involving IPSO, due prominence should be as required by the regulator.

Mediated outcome

6. The complaint was not resolved through direct correspondence between the parties. IPSO therefore began an investigation into the matter.

7. Following IPSO’s intervention, the newspaper offered to publish the following clarification in its corrections and clarifications column on page two:

The strapline above an article on September 27 headlined ‘One serious crime every 30 minutes’ said ‘SNP tries to claim crime is a record low – by ignoring 288,000 offences’. We are happy to clarify that, as the article itself stated, the number of crimes and offences committed have both decreased and both were recorded in the same way as under previous administrations.

8. The complainant said that this would resolve the matter to his satisfaction.

9. As the complaint was successfully mediated, the Complaints Committee did not make a determination as to whether there has been any breach of the Code.

Date complaint received: 27/09/2017

Date complaint concluded by IPSO: 24/10/2017