MacAskill red-faced as MSPs reject plan to axe short jail terms

Published on Wednesday 11 November 2009 21:47

JUSTICE secretary Kenny MacAskill suffered an embarrassing defeat with an influential Holyrood committee rejecting his plans to scrap short-term sentences.

The proposal to include a presumption of not giving out sentences of six months or less is the centrepiece of the new Criminal Justice and Licensing Act.

Mr MacAskill wants to replace short sentences with community work. However, in its report the Justice Committee rejected the idea on the casting vote of its chairman Bill Aitken.

The committee rejected the idea because of concerns over a funding gap for community sentences which could be as high as 55 million.

The prison service has previously claimed that the move would not bring it substantial savings, while councils have warned of massive increases in costs for social services with a requirement to deal with thousands of extra offenders doing community sentences.

There were also questions over whether 1m a year needed for a community sentencing council was value for money in the recession. It is estimated that the new quango's chief executive would cost taxpayers 97,000.

There are also fears that it would mean some dangerous criminals including people convicted of knife crime may be released immediately.

Labour's justice spokesman, Richard Baker, appealed to the minister to heed the committee. "The committee has rejected scrapping six-month sentences and have also made clear the funding gap for community payback orders," he said.

However, with the support of the Liberal Democrats in the committee and promised backing from the Greens when the bill comes to the full parliament, Mr MacAskill is still optimistic about getting the measure through.

Mr MacAskill insisted that he would continue to push for a presumption against short-term sentences.

He said: "

The reality is that three-quarters of those released from short sentences go on to re-offend within two years, while in contrast three out of five people sentenced to community service do not go on to re-offend. That is three out of five communities who are safer because of that approach."

The report was part of the first stage of the bill and will now go to the full parliament.