The Scottish Conservatives will today (Thursday) unveil a range of measures to fix Scotland’s “broken and weak justice system”.
Leader Russell Findlay will launch a policy paper that seeks to reverse the SNP’s harmful, soft-touch agenda by cracking down on criminals and strengthening victims’ rights.
The key proposals in the paper include:
- Tightening bail laws to help prevent crimes being committed by those on bail
- Mandatory life sentences for child rapists
- Ensuring regular police patrols on our streets
- Tougher punishments for antisocial behaviour offences and knife crime
- Seizing drug dealers’ dirty money by fixing broken proceeds of crime laws
- Support victims of crime with a new Victim Rights Act
Findlay said the proposals were essential to restoring public confidence in Scotland’s justice system and making communities safer.
He added that SNP ministers like to talk about putting victims of crime first, but the reality is very different, with lax sentencing guidelines and the prisoner early release programme pandering to criminals instead.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: “Crime victims and the law-abiding majority of Scots are sickened by the SNP’s relentless weakening of the justice system.
“There are so many cases of horror and heartbreak in which the suffering of crime victims is compounded.
“They’re treated with cold contempt while ministers pander to dangerous criminals who inflict misery in our communities.
“We demand a return to robust and effective policing to crack down on knife crime and bankrupt the drugs gangs. We want zero tolerance for child rapists and to ensure that bail is not granted for those who we know will walk out of court to commit more crimes.
“Our paper proposes a fundamental reset of the SNP’s broken and weak justice system by genuinely putting victims at its heart.”