BBC UK is focused today on the terrible murder by knife case and subsequent riots in Southampton and BBC Scotland is doing its best to include Scotland in the wider anxiety.

Why is it wrong, uninformative?

Murder by stabbing in Scotland has fallen in a steady trend to half of the level 6 years ago – From Knife crime statistics: FOI release, published today, we see that there were 49 homicides by knife in Scotland in 2017/2018 and that there has been a steady and significant fall to 25, in 2022/2023, the most recent data. https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202400427434/

With particular regard to larger ‘Zombie’ knives, in 2023-24, there were 15 crimes of Possession of certain dangerous knives in a private place (6 of which were used in other criminal activity and 9 which were not). In the same period there were 230 crimes of Possession of prohibited offensive weapons in a private place, 79 of these were used in other criminal activity and 151 were not. https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2023-24/

England and Wales – 94% increase in Police-recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in the last 10 years. 55,008 Police-recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/policeforceareadatatables