SNP has spent years ‘weakening the justice system’, claims Findlay

Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay has accused the Government of “weakening the justice system”.

Mr Findlay hit out during First Minister’s Questions, attacking the Government’s plans to reduce the automatic release point for short-term prisoners to 30% of their sentence in a bid to relieve pressure on the prison system.

The plans have been subject to a short consultation in the hopes that regulations will be in place before Holyrood breaks for May’s election, with Justice Secretary Angela Constance saying the plans are needed to “deliver a further, sustained reduction in the prison population”.

Mr Findlay also revived attacks on sentencing guidelines which steer judges away from sending those under the age of 25 to prison.

He told MSPs: “These guidelines traumatise victims by treating murderers and rapists as if they are children.

“This is all based in the nonsense belief that they are not mature enough to be responsible for their crimes.

“They are one of the many ways in which the SNP Government has spent years weakening Scotland’s justice system.”

Asked if he will scrap the guidelines, the First Minister said: “The young persons’ sentencing guidelines makes it clear that all sentencing options, including imprisonment, remain open to the court and it’s really important that I put that point on the record, because it’s just not the case that these sentencing guidelines make the provisions that Mr Findlay has talked about.

“These decisions on sentences are taken by the independent judiciary and I think it’s an important principle of our judicial system that the judiciary are able to operate independent of Government, with the ability to exercise the full range of options, including imprisonment.”

Mr Findlay raised the case of Keith Rollinson, the Elgin bus driver who died of cardiac arrest after being attacked by a 16-year-old.

The child in question – who cannot be named for legal reasons – was sentenced to four years and four months in custody, and the Tory leader said he will be out after serving two years.

Mr Findlay said: “Keith Rollinson’s tragic case highlights so much of what’s wrong with the SNP’s weak justice approach.

“A law that keeps some killers out of prison, guidelines that ensure other serious criminals are not jailed, releasing thousands of criminals early.

“There’s so much more, and none of this is by accident – it is by design.

“And now, John Swinney is going to free some prisoners after serving just 30% of their sentences.

“The SNP – stronger for criminals.”

Responding, the First Minister said he has “every sympathy” for Mr Rollinson’s widow Sue, adding: “She and her husband should never have had to experience the awfulness of what they have experienced.

“I can only express my sympathy to her and set out what is happening in relation to criminal justice in Scotland today.”

Recorded crimes, he said, have fallen, while prison sentences are longer, “as a consequence of the success of the Government in taking forward, through the Crown, the prosecution of many crimes that were previously unaddressed”.

Mr Swinney added: “I have every sympathy with Mrs Rollinson for what she’s experienced and I want to assure her that this Government is doing everything it can to make sure that those who commit crimes will be apprehended, prosecuted and, when the courts decide to do so, they will be imprisoned as well.”