Government 'too slow to act' on prison sentence reforms
Scottish Lib Dems urging ministers to act over plans to extend and strengthen the presumption against short prison sentences
The Scottish Liberal Democrats have urged ministers to act over proposals to extend and strengthen the presumption against short prison sentences.
The party has accused the Scottish Government of "prevaricating'' over the "long overdue reforms''.
A public consultation asked whether the current three-month presumption should be increased to six, nine or 12 months, with responses published in March.
Although the majority of those who responded backed extending the presumption, the Lib Dems say the Government has been too slow to act.
New figures show that in December 2015, more than 1,000 prisoners were serving sentences of less than a year.
A total of 115 prisoners were serving sentences of three months or less - raising concerns that the existing presumption against prison is not working effectively.
The Lib Dem justice spokesman Liam McArthur said: "Rather than being given ineffective and disruptive short spells in prison, such offenders would be better serving tough, community-based sentences.''
He added: "It's been over a year since the consultation on extending the presumption against short sentences closed.
"Responses were overwhelmingly in favour of this shift, with experts including HM Chief Inspector of Prisons backing a new 12-month rule.
"Yet the silence from the Scottish Government has been deafening.
"I will continue to press the Scottish Government to get on with delivering meaningful and long overdue prison reform.''
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Scottish Government remains committed to reducing the unacceptably high rate of imprisonment in Scotland.
"We have consistently stated that the responses to the consultation would inform our decisions. Whilst it is the case that the majority of respondents were in favour of an extension, many of the same respondents raised a number of concerns relating to the implementation and potential consequences of such an extension.
"It is only right that we take the time to ensure that these concerns can be properly addressed, and we continue to discuss how best to take this forward with the relevant stakeholders.
"The proposal to strengthen the presumption is only one part of our ongoing and wide-ranging work designed to reduce the use of short-term imprisonment through the delivery of effective, community sentences that promote rehabilitation.''