Scotland is the only area in the UK to see an overall decrease in the number of crimes committed on-board trains.

This is despite crime on the British railway network increasing by more than 12% throughout the UK over the past year.

Scotland also had the fewest incidents recorded of anywhere in the UK.

Homicides, assaults, sexual offences, drugs offences, robberies, racially or religiously aggravated public disorder offences and offences of violence involving firearms or explosives are among the reported crimes that have increased.

The figures released by British Transport Police (BTP) show that the total number of crimes in the UK have increased from 60,867 in 2017/18 to 68,313 in 2018/19.

Theft of passenger property is the most common offence on the network, accounting for 23% of crimes, closely followed by violent incidents.

Offences of violence, which included six homicides, 14 attempted murders, 3,047 serious assaults and 8,207 assaults, rose by more than 16%.

Sexual crimes were up by nearly 8%, with 1,584 offences against women and 113 against men.

Thefts of passenger property increased by 20.58% and robberies by 32.53%.

The figures also show that public disorder rose by 8.55%, with 7,993 reported cases of causing fear, alarm or distress and another 2,231 offences that were racially or religiously aggravated.

BTP said the increase in reported crime was linked to record numbers using the railway and stations becoming commercial environments, offering shopping, entertainment and nightlife.

A spokesman said the figures showed that becoming a victim of serious or violent crime on the British rail network is rare, with less than one serious violence or sexual crime per million passenger journeys.

The number of overall crimes per million journeys made has also fallen since 2009/10, from 25.6 to 20.8 in 2018/19.

Deputy Chief Constable Adrian Hanstock said: "Like forces throughout Britain, we have seen an increase in notifiable crime within the national network.

"With record levels of passengers using the railway, we anticipated there could be a subsequent rise in crime.

"As stations become increasingly commercial environments, a large proportion of this increase is as a result of theft of passenger property, anti-social behaviour or shoplifting.

"Despite this increase, when put into context, it is important to remember that the chance of becoming a victim of crime on the railway is very low.

"We now police more than 3.3 billion journeys each year, the equivalent of a third of the world's population passing through our jurisdiction.

"Of course, any rise in crime is of concern to us and we are tackling this head-on through our problem-solving initiatives at key locations."

Mr Hanstock added that BTP had seen a large increase in demand in relation to vulnerable people and officers and rail staff had helped to save 2,529 lives last year as a result of their interventions.