Minister backs down on electronic tagging regulations vote plans
Community safety minister Annabelle Ewing has backed down on plans to put regulations on electronic tagging to the vote at a Holyrood committee after she was challenged by MSPs.
Community safety minister Annabelle Ewing has backed down on plans to put regulations on electronic tagging to the vote at a Holyrood committee after she was challenged by MSPs.
The Scottish Government had been seeking to change some of the rules surrounding the use of home detention curfews.
But Ms Ewing was unable to provide statistics that MSPs on the Scottish Parliament's Justice Committee wanted.
Ms Ewing agreed not to move the secondary legislation after being challenged by the committee convenor, Tory MSP Margaret Mitchell.
Under the current regime, offenders who fail to comply with their terms of release on licence, or who commit a new crime while serving a sentence in the community, are permanently barred from being tagged again in the future.
The Scottish Government is seeking to change this so ministers will have the discretion to release offenders from jail on home detention curfews.
Ms Mitchell challenged the minister on the matter, saying: You and your officials have come to the committee unprepared without statistics that are referred to.
I find that unacceptable and it's for that reason I'm asking you not to move this.''
Ms Ewing said she did not want to disrespect the office of the chair of this committee''.
But while she said MSPs on the committee should have pursued their own research on the matter, she said it would not be a critical moment'' if the secondary legislation was not moved at this time.
Tory justice spokesman Douglas Ross said afterwards:
This was an embarrassing moment for the minister as she was completely unprepared for any scrutiny over her plans which she wanted the committee to endorse today.
Hopefully, this will give them time to reconsider these plans and look at the message this move could send out.
These individuals have already shown that they cannot be trusted, and are banned from being tagged for good reason.
The SNP, however, seem determined to ignore common sense and let them back into our communities even though, in many cases, prison seems the most appropriate place for these criminals to serve their punishment.''
Labour committee member Mary Fee hit out, saying: The committee appearance was, quite frankly, embarrassing for the Scottish Government as the minister struggled with the most basic of questions.
The job of Parliament and the committees is to scrutinise the Government and its proposals, yet the minister turned up without the facts and wanted members to take a leap of faith.
This is an SNP Government that thinks it can just railroad legislation through Parliament without full and proper scrutiny.
Yet today the minister failed to do her homework and was found out."