Still plenty of use in the U.K. Low and high-band VHF is in widespread use for PMR (Private Mobile Radio), used extensively by taxis, breakdown services, utility company vehicles, local authorities, etc. Extra frequencies were allocated to these in the late 1980s after the closure of our old 405-line VHF TV network.
UHF has also been widely employed for shorter range. A lot of police systems around the country used UHF links for the pocket radios, direct to the station for the local "bobby on the beat." I'm not sure if any such systems are still in use, but at one time there was a UHF-VHF relay built into the patrol cars. The cop could therefore use his UHF pocket radio while out on a call somewhere and still benefit from the better range of the VHF car system.
I know there has been a gradual move toward trunked UHF systems and digital, but to be honest I've not bothered to keep up with all the developments here in recent years.
As for decoding, it will depend upon the type of system in use. Some of the latest digital trunked systems being used in the U.S. are quite complex and require a considerable amount of equipment and programming to monitor effectively.
A lot of the emergency services have been moving toward trunked UHF networks, and digital.
