In the Guardian today:

NHS trusts in England recorded at least 295,711 alleged incidents of physical violence and aggression by patients against staff in England between 2022 and 2025, the Guardian has found. Responses to freedom of information (FoI) requests from 212 trusts showed the number of incidents reported by staff rose sharply over the three years, 91,175 in 2022-23 to 104,079 in 2024-25.

^{https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jan/11/how-common-violence-against-nhs-staff-england-prevention-safeguards}

Directly comparable figures for Scotland can be problematic but were they higher per head and rising, you know that would be all over ‘our’ media.

The data for 2024-25 in Scotland has not been published yet but there were 8 623 in 2023-24 down significantly (33%) from 11 775 in 2019-20.

^{https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25012933.upsurge-violent-incidents-nhs-scotland-staff/}

Note how the Herald reported the 33% fall, from 11 775 to 8 623 in one place then called it an ‘upsurge’ elsewhere.

So, we don’t have the data for both, for either 2024/25 nor for 2023/24 but per head the Scottish figure of 8 623 becomes 86 230, 5% lower than in England in 2022/23 and 17% lower than in 2024/25.

We can safely say incidents of physical violence and aggression by patients against staff in Scotland are falling and are significantly lower than in England.