Sad story to hear of yet
another pilot who by the sound of it should have stayed alive on the ground. The relatives of these three are now having a very poor start to the new year..
A couple of points. In UK VFR for normal operations by night is not allowed.
Police aircraft have a dispensation to fly under Visual Contact Flight (VCF) rules, which essentially lay down the minimum cloud and vis and distance/altitude from obstructions. An important rider to those limits is the requirement for the pilot to have sufficient lighting on the ground to judge the aircraft attitude. In order words, flight over a totally dark area with poor lighting (e.g. a large expanse of water or unpopulated area) is NOT allowed, irrespective of cloud and visibility.
EMS aircraft fly iaw IFR, there is no dispensation.
UK military night flights are not required to fly iaw the IFR rules (not governed by the CAA) but normal flight is done using NVG. The wx limits are
NOT reduced because NVG are used.
As long as pilots are pushed to fly "VFR" at night in marginal wx, especially without IFR competency or capability (the latter is madness in my book), accidents will continue. Take "pushed" to mean whatever you think it does, pressure can come in all directions.
That's the bottom line.