Tory slams crime-busting plans

Mr Wallace unveiled a series of proposals

Scotland has not become a safer place since Labour and the Liberal Democrats came to power north of the border, a senior Scottish Conservative has claimed.

Scots Tory Justice spokesman, Lord James Douglas Hamilton MSP, said that Justice Minister Jim Wallace had failed in his aim to promote the safety and security of individuals and communities.

The Scottish Executive said crime had fallen and the number of police officers was at a record high.

But Lord Douglas Hamilton said the executive's plans to 'make Scotland safer', contained in the proposals for a new Criminal Justice Bill, amounted to little more than "irrelevant and unenforceable politically correct projects".

He said that if the executive wanted to make people feel safe and increase public confidence in the justice system, it should increase police presence, deliver honesty in sentencing, and more lawbreakers should be imprisoned if that is what "justice demands".

Lord James Douglas Hamilton: Politically correct

Lord Douglas Hamilton said: "It is another shameful spin exercise when Labour and the Lib Dems seek to trumpet their success on law and order when, in reality, the situation continues to deteriorate under their watch.

"After presiding over a worrying increase in crime across Scotland, the Executive's proposals to 'make Scotland safer' amounts to little more than irrelevant and unenforceable politically correct projects of Liberal politicians frustrated by decades of being in opposition."

The Tory list MSP for the Lothians cited a proposal to ban parents from smacking their own children and seeking to allow 16 and 17-year-old criminals to escape trial in adult courts as examples of the politically correct agenda.

He said: "Jim Wallace should make it his new year's resolution to stop using his position to realise his own studenthood dreams and concentrate his energies on being a genuine crime fighter.

"Providing for sound law and order is the principle function of Government. It would be good if Jim Wallace would recognise that fact in 2002."

Significant innovations

A Scottish Executive spokesman said: "The Criminal Justice Bill provides for significant innovations in the treatment and management of serious violent and sexual offenders, and the treatment of children.

"Other proposals will modernise the law in areas such as statutory sex offences and parole arrangements, none of which are irrelevant or unenforceable."

He also claimed that crime had fallen, homicides are down and crime involving the alleged use of a firearm is now at its lowest level since 1979.