MSPs attack plans to give police input on sentences

Published on Tuesday 23 June 2009 22:52

PLANS to give police a formal role in deciding appropriate punishment for criminals have come under fire from MSPs.

The Scottish Government intends to create a Sentencing Council that will set strict guidelines for the length of sentences for various types of offences.

Sheriffs and judges will only be able to hand down an alternative punishment in exceptional circumstances which will have to be explained in writing.

The plan, contained in the Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill, will see a police officer and prosecutor sit on the Sentencing Council, along with judges and lay people.

But yesterday members of Holyrood's Justice Committee, which interrogated Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill on the plan, feared it would give the police too much power over sentencing, blurring the lines of responsibility between law enforcement and the courts.

Labour MSP Cathie Cragie questioned the plan to include a constable on the council.

"It's very clear the role of the police is not to judge – their role is to make sure they bring criminals before the proper body to make that judgment. That's a principle that's made very clear in the training of police officers, which is right," she said.

Mr MacAskill insisted the police would only be helping to draw up general guidelines over what is an appropriate sentence, not acting as judges.

"That's a responsible and duty charged to those elevated to the bench," he said. He added that it was important that sentencing guidelines reflect the views of the police and "what they pick up in our communities".

The council would not choose specific punishments for each case, but would set guidelines reflecting public feeling on types of crime, such as knife carrying or sectarian singing, the Justice Secretary added.

But Mrs Craigie argued it would be the Sentencing Council's job to "make a judgment about what's an appropriate sentence for a particular crime".

"I think I could argue with you on that point. I don't agree with you," she added.

Defending the plan for a sentencing council, Mr MacAskill rejected criticism that guidelines are already being carried out by the appeal court.

"This idea that everything is hunky-dory – no it ain't", he told Tory MSP Bill Aitken, the committee's convener, insisting that the judiciary needed to better reflect the views of the public when passing sentences.

Under the SNP's plans, the council would include five members of the judiciary, four other legal members including a constable and a prosecutor, and three lay members.

Speaking after the session, Mr Aitken strongly attacked the proposal to have a prosecutor and a police officer on the council. "You have got to have a separation of powers," he said. "The police will come to this with a vested interest – to lock up all the bad guys for a long time." But he agreed with Mr MacAskill that the council's membership had to be "balanced".

The criticism comes after Scotland's two most senior judges, Lord Justice General Lord Hamilton and Lord Justice Clerk Lord Gill, told the committee last month that the plans would "strip" them of their powers and could be in breach of human rights laws.

5.5m COMMUNITY SERVICE BOOST

MINISTERS are to plough an extra 5.5 million into trying to speed up the system of community service orders, MSPs heard yesterday.

The cash was promised by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, who said most of the cash will go to local authorities to "clear backlogs and speed up the system".

The Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill includes a "community payback order" – as a new sentence to replace probation, community service orders and other penalties.

Last week a sheriff in Aberdeen demanded an explanation from social services after it emerged a criminal had completed virtually none of his community sentence.

The demand by Sheriff James Tierney followed the disclosure that George Thompson had been able to complete just two-and-a-half hours of the 280 hours he was ordered to undertake last year for drug dealing.

The 5.5m is on top of an additional 2m put in this year to community service, he said. "Community sentences need to start on time and be enforced rigorously," said Mr MacAskill.

Labour claimed the money announced by Mr MacAskill would still leave a 22m "black hole" in the community sentence budget.