Professor John Robertson OBA

From BBC UK, 8th October 2025:

The number of people who died while homeless in the UK reached a record high last year, according to new figures. The Museum of Homelessness, which compiles the data, said that 1,611 homeless people died in 2024. The figure is 9% higher than the year before, with the majority of deaths being linked to suicide or drugs, with spice and nitazenes becoming increasingly deadly.

The figures show that 1,142 deaths were in England, an increase of 16% on the year before. London had the highest total number of deaths, but the largest increases were in Nottingham, where the number of deaths doubled to 22, and in Exeter, where they more than doubled from eight to 21.

In Northern Ireland, deaths increased by more than a third between 2023 and 2024, to 211. Wales saw a small annual decrease, from 97 to 90. In Scotland there was an 18% reduction overall from 206 to 168. The Museum of Homelessness found that deaths in both Glasgow and Edinburgh fell by around 40%.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg9ygnj44no

With much less of an anti-SNP agenda, BBC UK fails to spot something.

Yes, Scotland has these impressive reduction but how do the rates compare?

Now, as you well know, I tend to do the ‘ten times’ thing with a view to revealing just how much worse something is in England. Perhaps I shouldn’t do this but given the good news that things are improving dramatically here, I will.

Here we go.

All things being equal, England should have ten times the Scottish figure of 168, or 1 680, but had only 1 142, 622 fewer, 54% lower. OMG. Sssh!!