Monday November 2nd 2026
Police van in Midlothian
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
The number of violent crimes recorded across Midlothian was up by 10 per cent last year – including five attempted murders.
The annual chief constable’s report on the county has revealed there were more than 1200 crimes of violence – up by 110 on the previous year.
They included five attempted murders, 39 serious assaults, ten robberies and 902 common assaults.
There were also 57 attacks on emergency workers noted and five crimes of drugging reports.
The report is due to go before Midlothian Licensing Board this week and notes none of the drugging incidents recorded took place in pubs or other licensed premises.
It does, however, show the number of violent crimes which occurred on licensed premises rose from just 15 in 2024/25 to 56 last year but notes that 36 of the offences took place within supermarkets licensed to sell alcohol.
Crimes tagged as having alcohol as a factor accounted for just under 14 per cent of violent offences last year.
The report says: “Of the 1219 recorded crimes of violence for the 2025/26 period, a total of 167 (13.7%) had the alcohol marker attached to the crime report, which is an increase of 29 from the previous year.
“Common assaults continue to account for the main volume of alcohol related violence (68.9%), a decrease of 7.9 percentage points from the previous year
(76.8%).
“The number of serious assaults (12) where alcohol is a factor has increased from 10 in the previous year. Also, the number of alcohol-related assaults on emergency workers (19) increased by 26.7% from 2024/25.
“There were also five alcohol-related assaults on retail workers, a decrease from 10 when compared with last year’s level.”
The report also recorded 5037 incidents relating to antisocial behaviour over the last year which was up by less than three per cent on the previous year.
The findings will be discussed by the licensing board at their meeting later this week.
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