The Sun ‘newspaper’ this week has been milking Scotland’s dark history of murder, based entirely on offences which took place before the merger of Scotland’s eight regional forces. They have no choice to do so because not only has the murder level plummeted from 64 in 2012/2013, to 44 in 2024/2025, 33% in only 12 years, one of the lowest rates in Europe and well below that in England & Wales, every single cases has been solved.

The merger as with every SNP initiative met with opposition and media criticism. In 2017, the Herald‘s Tom Gordonstoun told us:

THE SNP Government has been accused of “a shocking lack of financial prudence” for pressing ahead with a controversial police merger without a full cost analysis. Labour MSP Mary Fee levelled the charge at Nicola Sturgeon at First Minister’s Questions. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15637528.sturgeon-financial-recklessness-police-merger/

From Police Scotland in March 2024:

Every homicide committed in Scotland since 2013 has been detected by Police Scotland, new figures confirmed today.

In 2022-23, all 52 homicides committed in Scotland were detected.

Latest statistics from Scottish Government, published today, show the number of homicides committed in Scotland continues to reduce.

Police Scotland’s 100 per cent homicide detection rate means that every one of the 605 murders committed since the inception of the single national service in 2013, has been solved.

In addition, a significant number of ‘cold cases’, some committed many decades ago, have also been detected with the culprits identified, often using the latest technologies, and brought to trial. These have included the murders of Brenda Page (1978) and Renee MacRae (1976). https://www.scotland.police.uk/what-s-happening/news/2023/october/homicides-in-scotland-2022-23/

BBC Scotland? Several tabloid specials on single cases but not a trace of the above information that the public might want to know about.

How do England and Wales compare? See the table above.