in Scotland last year.

BBC Scotland‘s short insert in BBC Breakfast show this morning reports on a survey by the Royal College of Nursing on racist incidents in the NHS and suggests the above figures for NHS Scotland.

It’s not covered by BBC Breakfast or on the websites of BBC Wales, Northern Ireland, nor for that matter, BBC Scotland with the implication then that it must be worse here.

The Guardian this morning helped with context and prompted our response:

Nurses across the UK reported 6,812 incidents last year in which they suffered racist abuse, NHS figures show, a big rise on the 3,652 incidents recorded in 2022.¹

The same 6 812 total is in the RCN briefing.²

For some reason, BBC Scotland and the Guardian have different data for considering increases, from 2024 to 2025 and 2022 to 2025. The RCN have not released the full research report and the media briefing² has no breakdown for NHS Scotland so the BBC Scotland figures have presumably just been passed to them verbally by the RCN in Scotland and they’ve made a mistake.

What we can do is compare the 2025 totals for the UK and for NHS Scotland as reported by BBC Scotland and they tell a story neither BBC Scotland nor the RCN Scotland branch want to hear.

All things being equal and with around 12 times the population, you might expect the UK figure to be 12 times the Scottish figure of 230 – 2 760 but it was 6 810, more than TWICE as high!

Not for the first time, BBC Scotland only reports on a problem that, while important, is nevertheless, on the evidence, less so in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK.

Sources:

1. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/19/racist-abuse-nhs-nurses-jumps-rcn-figures
2. https://www.rcn.org.uk/news-and-events/news/uk-racism-allowed-to-flourish-in-nhs-says-rcn-190526