Scottish Conservatives call for public to have greater say on Community Sentence work

The public should have a greater say in the work carried out by people doing community service.

Scottish Conservatives are calling for local groups to be given the power to 'bid' for those avoiding a prison sentence to undertake specific work, such as gritting pavements or painting fences.

It comes as after Scottish Government figures revealed that of those offenders given Community Payback Orders, more than a quarter do not do any work at all.

Scottish Conservative Justice Spokesman, David McLetchie MSP said:

"The SNP seem intent on emptying our jails as part of their soft touch approach to justice.

"It is bad enough that people committing assaults and even taking drugs are being let off with Community Payback Orders, but the fact that more than one in four are not even doing any kind of meaningful work is an insult to victims across Scotland.

"The public want to see justice being done and giving people a say on what kind of work offenders have to carry out in the community will go some way towards that."

"The Scottish Conservatives will continue to stand up to the SNP's soft-touch Scotland and fight for those convicted of crimes to pay their dues to society. The SNP seems to want to empty our jails. If so, the least they could do is to make sure that crime doesn't pay – but that criminals pay-back to society."

The Scottish Government figures regarding CPOs can be found here:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/CPOs

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/12/12131605/16

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