What action it is taking to agree and implement a standard definition of incidents recorded by the police.

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) are currently looking at this issue. This in turn has led the Scottish Command and Control User Group to set up a small working group, under the Deputy Project Manager of the National Command and Control Project, to prepare a National Standard for Incident Recording. This will incorporate the definition of an incident and set out a common minimum recording standard.
In relation to the recording of crimes and offences, action has already been taken to improve consistency in the way crimes are recorded in Scotland. The Scottish Crime Recording Standard (SCRS) was introduced throughout all Scottish Police Forces on 1 April 2004. The main aim of this was to provide a more victim orientated approach that ensured uniformity in crime recording standards throughout Scotland. The list of crime codes used to record crimes is consistent across all police forces in Scotland, and allows Scotland-level statistics to be created. This ultimately ensures a greater degree of comparability between forces than there was previously.
The Scottish Crime Registrars Group (SCRG), created to oversee change in all forces, has helped achieve a more standardised approach to recording. The group consists of the eight police force crime registrars, as well as representatives from British Transport Police, the Ministry of Defence Police and the Justice Analytical Services Division of the Scottish Government. The group meets every three months to review, maintain and improve the SCRS and its use and implementation.
The Scottish Government continually strives to improve the way in which crimes and offences are recorded in Scotland, and will work with all police forces across Scotland, the SCRG and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to ensure that the rules in place ensure as much consistency and uniformity as possible.