Whole-life Custody Sentences

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 4 June 2019.

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Photo of Fulton MacGregor Fulton MacGregor Scottish National Party

I find today’s motion to be quite shameful. Using the most tragic situations, which should unite all of us in the chamber, for an attempt at political gain is not good politics. The thought that any of us here do not have empathy for the families that Liam Kerr mentioned is absolutely disgusting. Mr Kerr knows that I have learned to respect him in committee, and I cannot believe that he is leading on the motion. Perhaps that exchange with our other committee colleague, Daniel Johnson, is an example of the exchange that happens off the record. During his opening speech, Liam Kerr gave away who he hopes will form the next Government. Was there an election a couple of weeks ago, in which the result did not quite go the Tories’ way? That is what it looks like to me.

At its heart, what Mr Kerr proposes is a step backwards for what is an increasingly progressive country. As a member of the Justice Committee, I fail to see how imposing whole-life custody sentences would benefit the already extensive powers of the Scottish courts, as others have also said. I do not believe that judicial discretion in Scotland is currently limited by mandatory sentences. The Tories should know, as Maurice Corry clearly does, that a life sentence prisoner who is approved for release is subject to a life licence.

The proposal also fails to grasp that Scotland’s judges already have the power to impose a sentence that exceeds the likely remainder of a prisoner’s life, depending on the severity of the crimes committed—a point that has been well made countless times today. That is, in effect, a whole-life sentence. It has been confirmed by the Sheriff Appeal Court and the Scottish Sentencing Council that the long-standing powers of the Scottish courts to sentence murderers and the most serious offenders remain in place, and the independent Parole Board appropriately assesses the risk of the individual to the public.

The real outcomes for serious offenders under the current legislation are that only 10 per cent of life sentence prisoners who were referred to the Parole Board last year were released, and of those, as the minister said earlier, none was under an order for lifelong restriction. The reality is that people who pose a serious risk to society will remain in prison indefinitely, so I do not think that anyone can say that the SNP Government or any other party in this chamber—Labour, Greens or Lib Dems—is engaged in soft justice for serious offending.