News In Focus
2 May 2005
Call for tougher sentencing
Up to 55,000 crimes a year are estimated to be committed by bailed suspects in Scotland.
New figures suggest that in Strathclyde alone, 21,000 offences are committed by offenders on bail every year, more than 900 of these being crimes of domestic abuse.
The figures are to be presented to the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (APS) later this month by its president Chief Superintendent Tom Buchan.
He wants tougher sentencing of offenders and more stringent application of the remand option.
The Scottish Executive's most recent statistics record only 4,000 offences as committed by bailed suspects last year.