A "toxic cocktail" of Tory spending cuts meant another increase in violent incidents against public sector workers in the last year, according to figures from trade union Unison.

The union's annual survey of violent incidents across Scottish councils and NHS Scotland made grim reading at its health and safety conference at Stirling University yesterday.

There were 33,689 incidents reported to public employers last year - almost 14,000 more than when the first survey was conducted in 2006.