Cracking down on crime

We have a plan to overhaul the SNP’s broken justice system and put victims of crime first.

  We would toughen up bail laws by:

Introducing ‘Claire’s law’ to restrict the use of bail and to prevent such horrific crimes happening in the future. Claire Inglis was murdered by a man who was bailed five times in 2021. We would introduce a new law that repeals the SNP’s soft-touch approach, places new restrictions on repeat offenders being granted bail and increases information sharing across justice agencies to prevent blind spots being missed that could have saved Claire’s life.

We would back our police officers by:

Restoring regular police patrols. We would set targets for the number of patrols police officers conduct in local communities, in order to deter crime and provide a reassuring presence for local residents.

Preventing the closure of local police stations. Further station closures are currently being considered by Police Scotland. We would work to maintain the current number of police stations and give ministers the power to intervene as a last resort where proposed closures would create policing deserts and stop local communities having access to a visible police presence.

Freeing up police officers’ time to fight crime. We would implement the successful ‘Right Care, Right Person’ model to stop the police being the default first responder to mental health incidents that are better handled by mental health services or other health professionals – allowing the police to spend more time fighting and deterring crime. We would also repeal the Hate Crime Act, to ensure that officers aren’t wasting time policing speech.

We pledge to introduce a new Protection of the Public Act which would:

End weak SNP justice. The Bill would scrap failed SNP soft-touch justice policies like the under 25s sentencing guidelines and the presumption against short-term prison sentences.

Hand out mandatory life sentences for child rapists and give tougher sentences for sex offenders across the board. The fact that sexual crimes in Scotland are at their second highest level since 1971 should be a national source of shame. We would make it mandatory for child rapists to be given a life sentence and increase the maximum punishments for all crimes that are deemed sexual offences – starting with crimes like voyeurism, which can escalate further to rape and murder.

Tackle the scourge of knife crime through increased punishments and ‘stop and search’ powers. We would give the police expanded ‘stop and search’ powers, including to search under 18s, in order to prevent knife crime. For offenders who are caught repeatedly possessing knives, we will introduce a mandatory minimum six-month prison sentence.

Ensure dangerous murderers can never be released. We would introduce whole life orders which would ensure the most dangerous murderers can never be released from prison.

Make criminals carry out proper community work as punishment for their crimes. When offenders are given community sentences, they should be a credible alternative to prison and contain a requirement to perform visible work that is tough, laborious and improves our communities – like litter picking, cleaning graffiti and tidying our streets. Furthermore, breaches of community sentences should be punished more harshly to deter re-offending.

Crack down on organised crime gangs. Organised crime gangs spread terror throughout our communities, so we would respond accordingly and criminalise gang membership in line with terrorist legislation. We would also ensure that gang bosses repay the profits of their crime by reforming Proceeds of Crime laws.

We would restore public confidence in our prisons by:

Expanding the number of prison places. We would achieve this by cutting out unnecessary features in new prisons wherever possible, in order to fast track their construction and free up space for more prison cells. We would also launch a review to determine where new prison wings could be opened and capacity boosted on the existing estate.

Removing biological men from women’s prisons. Biological men belong in men’s jails and biological women belong in women’s jails. We would put an end to the Scottish Prison Service’s ongoing confusion around this simple question and remove biological men from women’s prisons without exception.

Cracking down on rule breakers in prison. We would change the law to make prisoners who persistently break rules whilst in custody ineligible for early release. On top of this, we would crack down on contraband and severely punish those found possessing mobile phones and stop high supervision prisoners having access to kettles, given recent boiling water attacks on prison officers.

Ending the drugs trade behind bars. We would install window grilles, which have been proven to stop drone deliveries, in all prisons, and invest in drone detection technology, sniffer dogs, and X-ray machines. In addition, we would call for no-fly zones for drones over Scottish prisons and increase sentences for those found guilty of intimidating or threatening prison officers.

We’ll enact a zero-tolerance approach to antisocial behaviour, which will:

Toughen up punishments for a range of antisocial behaviour offences. We would increase maximum fines and raise unpaid work requirements to deal with the rise in antisocial behaviour and ensure actions have consequences.

Introduce a ‘three strikes’ approach to antisocial behaviour where frequent offenders are jailed. To clamp down on this unacceptable behaviour once and for all, we will lock up the small minority who persistently commit consecutive antisocial behaviour offences with no remorse to reclaim our streets and ensure people feel safe in their own communities.

Protect small businesses by locking up shoplifters. Major shoplifting gangs, many linked to organised crime, are harming our high streets and pushing up prices. We would end the current practice of dealing with the majority of serial shoplifters through fines, as this has not deterred reoffending. Instead, a shoplifter who is convicted of three separate offences will be required to go to prison.

We would deliver justice and transparency by introducing a Victim Rights Act that:

Boosts information available to victims about their case. By ensuring that the Victim Notification Scheme is switched from an opt-in to an opt-out system so that more victims are told about important developments in their case. We would also enshrine in law a requirement for victims to be told specific details, such as the sentence received by the criminal and what the charges were.

Allows soft sentences to be appealed by victims. In England and Wales, there is a system that allows the Attorney General to initiate an appeal of a sentence if they deem it unduly lenient following requests from members of the public. We would extend this to Scotland, so victims and members of the public can write to the Lord Advocate to request that they consider appealing unfairly lenient sentences.

Introduces a real Suzanne’s Law. As victims have called for, we would change the law to prevent convicted murderers from being released from prison if they do not disclose the location of their victims’ bodies.