
John Robertson
While Scotland’s drug deaths feed ill-informed debate across UK media including on Question Time last night, uniquely dramatic increases in female homicide victims in England and Wales go unremarked.
From the BBC England website:
The number of female homicide victims in England and Wales has risen to the highest level since 2006. There were 241 female victims of murder, manslaughter and infanticide in the 12 months to the end of March 2019, up 10% on the previous year.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51491021
From the Scottish official statistics for the same period:

In 2018-19, there were 46 male victims, representing 75% of all homicide victims. So, there were 16 female victims up from 15 the previous year.
Thus, Scotland has 9% of the population of England and Wales but only 6.6% [16 compared to 241] of the female homicides. The Scottish rate has increase by 1 or by 6% [statistically insignificant with such as small number] as opposed to by 10% in England and Wales.