SNP ‘playing fast and loose with safety’ amid looming cuts to justice budget

The Scottish Government has been accused of “playing fast and loose with community safety” amid plans to cut the justice budget.

Scottish Labour said the SNP was planning to cut the cash used to tackle crime by 9.4% in real terms by 2029 – the highest of any part of Government.

It said a cash reduction of 40.1% for the Scottish Prison Service signalled a “dramatic reduction” for the investment into prison estates once the delayed HMP Glasgow is completed.

It said the plans set out in the Government’s spending review – which outlines longer-term spending plans – would come despite prisons in Scotland being “dangerously overcrowded”.

Legal aid is also facing a reduction in funding, the review shows, while the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service’s budget will be flat, despite what Labour said was a “huge” court backlog and a “crisis in access to justice”.

The party said the cuts were “a consequence of SNP mismanagement”.

Pauline McNeill, Scottish Labour’s justice spokesperson, said: “Scotland’s justice system is already in a state of crisis under the SNP but more cuts are looming.

“Frontline policing is at breaking point, crime is rising, our courts are overburdened and prisons are dangerously overcrowded – but the SNP doesn’t seem to understand the scale of the crisis.

“The SNP is playing fast and loose with community safety.

“These cuts are a consequence of nearly two decades of SNP financial mismanagement – but Scottish Labour will end SNP waste and make our communities safer.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The reality is that Scotland continues to be a safe place to live, with recorded crime down by half since 1991, homicide levels at their lowest ever recorded level and people feeling safer in their communities.

“Record Scottish Government funding enabled Police Scotland to take on more recruits in the last financial year than at any time since 2013, the number of outstanding criminal trials has fallen by over 65% since January 2022 and robust action is being taken to safely manage the prison population.

“We will invest £11.6 billion across the justice system in 2026-27 to 2028-29 as we continue to support frontline services, build safe communities, reduce crime and reoffending and support victims and witnesses.”