HATE crime and domestic assaults figures have risen in Barrhead – because more people are reporting their abuse.

East Renfrewshire’s police say that a rise in people reporting crime across the board in the area can be put down to increased confidence in the force.

There is also no link between increased tensions after Brexit and the rise in hate crimes, according to officers.

This comes as Police Scotland’s third quarterly report for the year showed that serious assaults had risen by 71 per cent and hate crimes had risen by 65.8 per cent.

Chief Superintendent Brian McInulty and area commander, Chief Inspector Angela Carty, took questions on the report from East Renfrewshire councillors at a meeting of the cabinet last Thursday.

Speaking on the rise in hate crimes, chief inspector Carty said: “There is no clear link between these – it is not like there is a group of people who have set out to cause trouble or incite hatred.

“They are best described as spontaneous individual cases.

“Having looked at the crimes myself, iappears to be cases of people like taxi drivers and shopkeepers getting into confrontations.

“This leads to a verbal attack – it is not a matter just of race. Sexuality and religion also play a part.”

Chief Inspector Carty continued: “The rise in the number of reported incidents is down to an increasing number of people who have the confidence now to report these incidents.

“More and more people are beginning to realise that no, it is not acceptable behaviour and they should be reporting it.”

“It is worth mentioning that a lot of these said that a lot of the incidents involved abuse that has been directed at police officers or other members of the emergency services in the course of their duty.”

Other headline figures included a jump in sexual crimes of 18 per cent over the period from April to December 2016 compared to the same period in 2015.

Incidents of domestic abuse incidents rose from 216 to 235 in the same period, which police again contributed to rising confidence in reporting incidents.

Good news could be found in the statistics for theft by housebreakings – a major issue in the wealthy suburbs of the county.

The number of theft by housebreaking incidents dropped from 155 to 138 compared to the same period the previous year – with a detection rate of 24 per cent, meaning an arrest was made in one of every four incidents.

Inspector Carty said: “Housebreakings continue to be one of our main priorities, and we have made some key arrests that have resulted in custodial sentences and a drop in the number of housebreakings.”

Tory councillor Barbara Grant raised concerns over the low detection (arrest) rates displayed in the statistics, with the number for sexual crimes falling from an arrest in 79.7 per cent of cases, to 56.9 per cent.

A similar reduction was also seen in domestic abuse cases fell from 83.3 per cent to just 62.1 per cent.

A lack of corroboration was cited as a main issue, however Inspector Carty said that the force was working hard to improve locally.