Knife crackdown 'to increase prison numbers by 500'

Published on Sunday 10 April 2011 18:48

Jailing everyone caught carrying a knife for six months will add 500 inmates to Scotland's prison population, Labour leader Iain Gray has said.

Doubts have been raised over the ability of the prison system to cope with such a crackdown: overcrowding concerns are a regular feature of jail inspection reports and the 8,000-strong prison population is increasing every year.

But Mr Gray insisted there was enough space in Scotland's prisons to deal with an influx of 500 extra prisoners and said it would be backed up with resources.

During a BBC television debate with the other main party leaders yesterday, he said: "This is a policy designed to deter. Even if it didn't have a deterrent effect, you would need an additional 500 places in prison.

"There is capacity currently in the prisons. There is a new prison currently coming on stream, but just to be certain, in our manifesto we also put 20 million a year aside to make this policy good."

But Scottish Police Federation general secretary Calum Steele raised questions over the Labour proposals.

He said: "The principle of mandatory prison terms for knife carriers is good, but we remain unconvinced that the policy will work in practice."

Mr Gray said the policy was being demanded by the 30,000 Scots who had signed a petition on the issue.

Holyrood 2011 in full

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"The people of Scotland want to see tough action on knife crime," he said.

The plans are not backed by the SNP or the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

However, First Minister Alex Salmond accepted that people were "hugely concerned" about the issue.

"Over the last four years, knife crime in Scotland has declined by 30 per cent," he said.

"When Iain (Gray] was the deputy justice minister, knife crime increased by 12 per cent in a single year - let's look at what actually works."

About 2,000 people a year convicted of knife crime are not currently jailed, according to Labour. It is expected these people would serve only three months under automatic early release, meaning an average of 500 extra prisoners would be added to Scotland's jails.

The Tories have previously supported the proposals at Holyrood, but party leader Annabel Goldie was reluctant to voice her support yesterday.She said what mandatory sentencing did not highlight was that offenders would not serve the full term due to automatic early release, which she wants to see scrapped.

When asked if someone should serve six months for carrying a knife, Ms Goldie said the court must have "discretion in sentencing".

She added: "There may be a world of difference between someone innocently carrying a knife going to a neighbour's allotment to cut vegetables and someone with a knife at two in the morning in a city centre."

During yesterday's debate, the recent controversy over local income tax (LIT) resurfaced, with Mr Salmond facing fresh claims that he had misled voters over the cost of replacing council tax with the SNP's proposed scheme, after the party went to court to prevent publication of a paper setting out the likely funding gap.

This was revealed to be about 380 million in a separate paper last week.

Mr Salmond said finance secretary John Swinney "had set out a figure" of 450m in parliament in 2009 and indicated this meant the shortfall was already in the public domain.

But Labour pointed to the official Holyrood report, which shows the 450m referred to by Mr Swinney was the expected saving from LIT. Mr Gray said: "The SNP is deliberately trying to misdirect people over their local income tax, but no-one is fooled.

"The SNP have been engaged in a systematic attempt to mislead people for two years, and the latest excuses merely prompt more questions."

Ms Goldie asked why the Scottish Government had gone to court to block the publication of a memo detailing the impact of LIT on taxpayers if there is "nothing to hide".

But Mr Salmond said: "Any government, including the Labour and Liberal Democrat government, will always defend the principle that civil service advice should be confidential. The reason for that is, if you don't defend that principle, you won't get any advice."

The prospect of a minimum price for alcohol being revived was also raised, and Mr Gray agreed to look again at the issue.

The SNP leader has pledged to re-introduce the measure after it was voted down by the other three parties at Holyrood.

Mr Gray said: "We will talk about it - the proposal has to be workable."

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Ms Goldie insisted the minimum pricing policy was not targeting problem drinks and drinkers, and that the Conservatives had "valid reasons" for not backing it.

Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott said existing laws were not being used.

But Mr Salmond said: "The reality of this is that, faced with the greatest moral challenge in the last parliament of addressing Scotland's real problem with alcohol, these parties refused to back it."