BBC Scotland Investigates

BBC Scotland investigates the world of the professional shoplifter and discovers that, in the midst of a recession, the UK's organised criminal steal-to-order gangs are flourishing.

Kenneth MacDonald investigates whether Buckfast Tonic Wine can really be blamed for crime and antisocial behaviour. He enlists top scientists in the search for evidence about the drink's effects and uncovers new and surprising evidence. He hears allegations of a plot against the drink and looks into the role of a monastic order while trying to crack the Buckfast Code.

The deaths of nineteen men in a tragic whisky bond fire in Glasgow in 1960 represented the worst peacetime loss of life for the fire service. The fire in Cheapside Street was one of a series of disasters in commercial premises in Glasgow which earned the city the nickname 'Tinderbox City'. Yet despite the loss of life and the bravery of those who survived, little was done to ensure such a tragedy could never happen again.

In the early hours of Thursday 15 April 2010, British airspace closed down due to a volcanic eruption in Iceland. In this documentary, Sally Magnusson travels to Iceland to uncover the warnings that some feel were ignored about volcanic ash. She investigates the science behind volcanic ash and asks what will happen when Iceland's larger volcano erupts?

David Cameron's Conservative Party were the biggest winners in the General Election. Yet, while England swung to the Tories, Scotland didn't follow. Only one Conservative was elected to Westminster from North of the Border. Why don't the Scots want to vote Tory? Sally Magnusson was on the campaign trail with two Tory hopefuls as she strived to discover why England and Scotland are now more divided than ever when it comes to the Tories.

As one in four women and one in six men will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, reporter Samantha Poling explores how the issue is being tackled in Scotland today. The programme shows the first ever footage of Scotland's only domestic abuse court at work. Samantha meets victims who feel let down by those they turned to for help, while there is also a look at offenders who are having to undergo behavioural therapy to curb their violence towards their partners.

With new research showing that the standard of the teacher is the most important factor in a child's school education, more important than class sizes or the curriculum, BBC Scotland Investigates ask why so many bad teachers are being allowed to teach. Talking to parents, head teachers and school watchdogs, reporter Sam Poling reveals the shocking effects that bad teachers are having on our children and asks why more is not being done to rectify it.

Mark Daly investigates new government plans to end the UK's sicknote culture by getting a million people off benefits and back to work. We reveal how, in Britain's modern welfare state, private companies are paid billions to carry out medical assessments on claimants to determine if they are fit for work, and ask if they are putting profits before welfare. The film hears claims that patients across Scotland with severe mental illness and cancer are being denied benefits and told they must find a job.

On 24 August 1560 the Scottish Parliament brought the Church of Scotland into being. It was a move that changed the nation forever. But with diminishing attendance and problems with recruiting new ministers the church is facing a crisis. Reevel Alderson finds out what the Reformation did for us and whether it would matter if the Kirk disappeared from Scottish life.

An ex-Para, Tony Banks fought in the Falklands conflict and his painful war memories continue to trouble him today. He walked away from that conflict with a war trophy which he has been with him for the last 28 years, a trumpet taken from an Argentinian prisoner of war. Could this simple musical instrument hold the key to putting the trauma of war behind him?

In 1982 the Pope came to Scotland for the first time. Before he arrived there were protests in the streets and with Argentina invading the Falkland Islands, Britain was at war with a Roman Catholic country. It was the visit that very nearly did not happen, but in the midst of this controversy it was hailed as a great success. On the eve of a new papal visit by Benedict XVI, Elizabeth Quigley looks back at the first pope in Scotland and speaks to the people involved whose lives were changed forever.

Samantha Poling investigates how homeopathy has penetrated the heart of the NHS and asks whether prescribing homeopathic preparations for serious conditions could be dangerous for patients.

Exactly two years since the near collapse of Scotland's biggest banks, BBC Scotland Investigates whether it's time to start trusting bankers again. Focusing on Scotland's bailed out institutions, HBoS and RBS, reporter Mark Daly speaks to a series of city bankers - many of them totally unrepentant - and asks the questions everybody wants answered.

Scots look to the state for cradle-to-grave provision. A sense of common purpose and solidarity, sometimes in contrast with England, means the role of the state has become tied up with national identity. With massive spending cuts looming, Douglas Fraser asks what comes next and considers whether Scots will grow business to replace the state and whether voluntary organisation will play a bigger role.

Would it be better if 60,000 children in Scotland had never been born? That is the controversial conclusion of Barbara Harris who believes that Scotland's drug and alcohol addicts should not be allowed to procreate. This programme investigates Barbara's contentious American charity Project Prevention as it attempts to set up in the UK. The charity is devoted to paying every addict who agrees to either long term birth control or sterilisation 200 pounds to stop them having any more children. The social and economic cost of Scotland's current addiction problem runs to a staggering 2.6 billion pounds a year, and Barbara thinks she can solve it at its source. But critics have called her methods unethical, comparing her to Hitler and accusing her of practicing eugenics. With over 3000 addicts already signed up in the US, can Project Prevention help Scotland's serious and long-standing addiction problems, or is this modern day eugenics?

The story of the rise and fall of the former Scottish Socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan. Convicted of perjury for lying about a sex scandal, the film interviews Tommy Sheridan just before his conviction, shows the police video tapes of Tommy Sheridan's interrogation and speaks to the people linked to the trial that gripped Scotland.