Businesses are being urged to take part in a groundbreaking survey that will measure the true impact of crime on Scottish firms.
The survey is the first of its kind and will help Scottish Government, Police, Fire and the Scottish Business Resilience Centre gather vital intelligence about the extent of crime affecting Scotland’s businesses – and to ensure the correct resources are being deployed to address the threat.
It has been launched by the Scottish Business Resilience Centre itself (SBRC), whose remit is Create a Secure Scotland for Business To Flourish In.
The Scottish Business Crime Survey 2013 aims to collate a baseline figure of the true extent of business crime in Scotland by asking thousands of businesses to recount their own experiences, from vandalism to card fraud. It caters for a range of business sectors regardless of size or location.
Sean Davidson, Business Analyst for the Scottish Business Resilience Centre, who is leading the project, fears many low-level crimes go unreported by businesses because doing so would cost them time and money.
Sean said: “This survey will provide a massive boost in the fight against business crime.
“We are interested in any crimes that affect any businesses in Scotland, whether they be small, medium or large.
“We want to know about all types of crime from shoplifting, robbery and theft, to assaults on staff and electronic crime.
“We know these things happen, but currently we don’t know the full extent because not every single crime gets reported to the police.
“Businesses tend not to report some crimes to the police, such as the theft of low-value items because they might not see it as worth their while or think that the police might not be interested. This isn’t the case.
“But if we can get a true picture of the scale and intensity of crime affecting Scottish businesses we can look to provide the direct help that can start to make a difference.
“For example we can create staff training packages, work with partners to develop anti-crime strategies or we can alert businesses to particular scams along with how to avoid these.
“This kind of support can be crucial to help business remain on a sound footing and reduce their risk to a number of threats so that they are better able to compete locally, nationally and internationally.”
All Scottish-based businesses, from sole traders to large corporations across all sectors, are being urged to take part and have their say on how crime affects them.
The online questionnaire is anonymous and takes just five minutes to complete.
Businesses can take part in the survey by visiting https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BusinessCrimeSurvey
