Justice

Under the SNP, crime is out of control with violent crime, sexual crime and shoplifting all skyrocketing in recent years. Anti-social behaviour blights our streets while two-tier soft justice policies ensure criminals do not face real consequences for their actions.  

Police officer numbers have reached record lows and only around half of all crimes are solved but they are forced to waste time policing speech thanks to the SNP’s Hate Crime Act.

The Scottish Conservatives would put victims first, ensure criminals face tough consequences for their actions, scrap the SNP’s soft-touch justice policies, boost frontline policing, and protect free speech.

The SNP have cut police officer numbers to record lows. Since the SNP’s police merger, Police Scotland has lost hundreds of ‘divisional’ police officers, who patrol the streets and respond to calls. On their watch, at least 140 police stations have been closed and in 2024 police officer numbers hit their lowest level since 2007. This has vastly reduced the number of police on Scotland’s streets and made the public less safe. 

The SNP have brought in two-tier sentencing policies which let criminals off the hook. The SNP’s two-tier sentencing guidelines for under-25s have let murderers and rapists off with lighter sentences while Police Scotland have warned it is being exploited by organised criminal gangs who know young people will face no real consequences for their actions.

The SNP have let hundreds of dangerous offenders out of prison. Not only have the SNP released hundreds of dangerous prisoners early, at least 1 in 10 of whom were back behind bars within weeks for committing new crimes, their effective ban on prison sentences of 12 months or less has seen thousands of criminals avoid prison. Between 2018-19 and 2021-22, this ban stopped more than 3,500 criminals from being locked up.