Scotland's sectarian problem has suddenly become international news.

The bombs posted to the Celtic manager Neil Lennon and to high-profile supporters of the club alerted the world to the nation’s nasty underbelly.

The letter bombs added to a patchwork of recent incidents, including Rangers facing Uefa sanctions following allegations of sectarian singing, bullets being posted to the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, and yesterday’s police raids targeting people suspected of posting sectarian hatred online. Taking a tough stance, the Scottish Government yesterday declared that sectarianism “has no place to hide”.

However, the Sunday Herald can reveal that the government has kept the true nature of religious hatred in Scotland under wraps for five years, after the last available set of statistics were made public.

Since 2006 the Scottish Government and the Crown Office have refused repeated requests for a breakdown of the character of sectarian crimes. Under Section 74 of the Criminal Justice Act (2003), individuals can be convicted for “religiously aggravated offences”. While the Crown Office publishes the total number of convictions under Section 74 every year, it refuses to reveal how many crimes were anti-Catholic, anti-Protestant, anti-semitic or anti-Muslim. Simply put, the size of the problem is known, but not its shape. The last published figures with that detail date from June 2005.

These figures analysed 726 cases between January 1, 2004 and June 30, 2005 where people were charged with religiously aggravated offences, and found that in 64% of cases the abuse or assaults were motivated by hatred against Catholics. Most of the remaining cases involved hatred against Protestants.

But it has been more than five years since the fine detail of sectarianism has been properly quantified.

Politicians have accused the SNP government of “sitting on the facts”. The Catholic Church has questioned whether there has been the political will to tackle sectarianism, and academics have queried how Scotland could deal with sectarianism if vital statistics are being withheld.

The official reason given by the government and the Crown Office was that retrieving the data was too time-consuming and complicated. The SNP, however, said it would publish a detailed analysis if re-elected.

This news comes on the day of a decisive Old Firm game, played out against a backdrop of events that Steve House, chief constable of Strathclyde Police, described as a “perfect storm”. He has drafted an extra 1000 officers on to the streets to keep crime in check.

Last Wednesday it was revealed that letter bombs had been sent to Lennon, lawyer Paul McBride QC and former MSP Trish Godman. McBride recently defended Lennon at an SFA hearing, while Godman wore a Celtic shirt to her last day in parliament. The bombs were traced back to Kilwinning, Ayrshire. In a separate incident, live bullets were sent to Cardinal Keith O’Brien, head of the Catholic Church in Scotland.

McBride and Lennon both gave defiant interviews. The former highlighted the role the internet plays in allowing people to “spew their hatred and bile out”. Two men were arrested yesterday following police raids targeting those posting sectarian comments online.

In the wake of these disturbing events, there is concern that the overall character of sectarian crime has remained a statistical unknown since 2005.

According to the best published figures available, since 2003 there have been on average 580 charges a year of an offence aggravated by religious prejudice. It peaked in 2005-06 with 704 charges. Last year, 2009-10, there were 629, down from 669 in 2008-09.

Peter Kearney, spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland, noted that after the church spoke out about the trends in 2006, the breakdown of the statistics stopped.

“We are now acting blind without these figures,” said Kearney. “For any incoming administration, this has to be a priority. We have got to start having an informed debate, informed by the reality of the offences. You just can’t imagine any other problem where people wouldn’t look for a proper breakdown of the problem they are trying to solve.”

Cardinal Keith O’Brien has called for an annual breakdown of the figures ever since. He has been refused every time.

“It’s a tiny price to pay in the current climate for having an informed debate,” added Kearney. “The numbers are there. Let’s publicise them. Let’s discuss them. Let’s talk about how we tackle them.”

Within political circles there is an opinion that the SNP, who came into power several months after the last detailed breakdown, are reluctant to publicise anything that makes Scotland look bad.

Under the last Labour administration, former First Minister Jack McConnell called sectarianism “Scotland’s secret shame”. His party now claims that the momentum it built on tackling the problem has been squandered. Labour Leader Iain Gray said: “If the Scottish Government keeps these statistics, they should be published, and if I am First Minister, I will publish them. We urgently need to see a renewed momentum on sectarianism, building on the ground-breaking work from Jack McConnell. The fact that it is such a complex issue is why we need a solid evidence base to make it work.

“The events of the last week reinforce the case for publishing these statistics.”

Writing for the Sunday Herald, Professor Tom Devine, director of the Scottish Centre of Diaspora Studies at the University of Edinburgh, called on the Crown Office to publish the data immediately. He said: “Not to have done so thus far is in the current context a grave dereliction of public duty. If this problem is ever to be tackled effectively, absolute intellectual honesty and evidential transparency must be at the heart of the endeavour.”

Asked why the Crown Office has been unwilling to provide such transparency for the past six years, a spokeswoman said: “The prosecution operational database does not include such analytical information in an accessible format in this area or any other area of crime and therefore specific research is required by Scottish Government researchers or researchers commissioned by the Scottish Government.

“It has been agreed that this research will be repeated and arrangements are now in train to allow these statistics to be collated and researched as proposed by the prosecution.”

The SNP confirmed it would finally publish the full data if re-elected. A party spokesman said: “Law Officers have recommended a number of measures to help combat sectarian crime, which we support -- such as increased sentencing, and action to eradicate it from the internet -- and conducting and publishing an analysis of sectarian offences in Scotland will be done if the current administration is re-elected. The Cabinet discussed and agreed these matters at its meeting on March 8.”

Writing in today’s Sunday Herald, Alex Salmond describes sectarianism as “unacceptable”. He says: We must have zero tolerance towards sectarianism. That includes the chanting of sectarian songs at football matches.”

Salmond -- my message: Page 20

Editorial: Page 40

Special report by Edd McCracken