Tackling social issues will help cut violence in Scotland, says expert

The deputy director of Scotland's Violence Reduction Unit believes that reducing violence further will require tackling problems in society.

Will Linden told BBC Scotland's Reevel Alderson: "When we first started out [with the unit], we said that if we wanted to reduce violence in Scotland we had to tackle it in the west and tackle it in Glasgow because that was responsible for a disproportionate high level."

He went on to says that the success at cutting violence in and around Glasgow needed to be built upon by tackling problems in society such as alcohol, poverty, social isolation and exclusion.

Mr Linden said: "Those are the big issues that we need to actually tackle if we want to reach those next levels of reduction in Scotland."