Knife change summit

October 2nd, 2009

Greenock and Inverclyde MSP Duncan McNeil met with shadow justice secretary Richard Baker and knife campaigner John Muir to discuss an bill amendment that could see Damian's Law put to a vote.

Mr Baker is currently looking to introduce an amendment to the forthcoming Criminal Justice Bill on knife crime and is working with Mr McNeil and Mr Muir on the issue.

If it is brought forward, the Scottish Parliament could vote on introducing mandatory prison sentences of at least six months for knife criminals.

Mr McNeil said: "John has led this campaign from the start and he clearly still has a lot of ideas about how we can rid our streets of the threat of knives.

“So I think it is important that he gets to feed those ideas in to the political process and that is why he is meeting with Richard Baker, the shadow justice minister, to discuss what can be achieved in forthcoming legislation.

“I still believe there are real opportunities in the Criminal Justice Bill to send out the message that carrying a knife is not acceptable.”

The Criminal Justice Bill was introduced in March this year and is currently being considered by the Justice committee at the first of three stages.

The first part of this scrutiny will be completed at the end of October.

Currently, the bill seeks to abolish prison sentences of six months or less and establish a Scottish Sentencing Council.

Mr McNeil said: “As things stand, this bill makes it less likely that violent offenders will end up behind bars.

“Quite clearly, the people who have supported our campaign want to see those who carry and use knives in prison where they belong.

“So we must put our case to the parliament to have this bill reflect the will of all the people who have backed our campaign against knives.”

ENDS

Link to the bill - http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/24-CrimJustLc/index.htm