MSPs to vote on terror sentencing across UK

MSPs are to be given the chance to vote on a UK-wide law to revamp sentencing for terror offences.

Humza Yousaf announced MSPs will get the chance to vote. Picture: John Devlin

Scottish Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf announced yesterday a legislative consent motion (LCM) has been lodged at Holyrood to give MSPs the chance to vote on the legislation.

An LCM can be lodged in any of the UK’s devolved administrations when a Bill introduced at Westminster legislates on a devolved matter.

However the result of an LCM is not binding and cannot act as a veto, as was the case last month when Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland voted to withhold consent for the Brexit Bill.

The Terrorist Offenders (Restriction of Early Release) Bill was introduced in the Commons following the terror attack in Streatham earlier this month after it emerged the attacker - who stabbed two people before being shot dead by police - had been released from prison ten days before.

The legislation aims to move the earliest release point from half of a custodial sentence to two-thirds, with parole boards given responsibility for assessing the risk of individual offenders.

Mr Yousaf said while there should be reform of sentencing, more should be done to stop radicalisation and ensure terror offences are never planned in the first place.

The LCM is due to be debated at Holyrood next week.

Mr Yousaf said: “We have now lodged an LCM for the Scottish Parliament’s approval to minimise the risk of error and confusion arising in the law so that workable enforcement of sentencing provisions can operate in the future.”