Wrong votes curb SNP tagging proposals
13 Mar 08
Lib Dems' accidental "no" vote excludes long-term prisoners from home detention curfew
The SNP's proposals to extend electronic monitoring in order to ease overcrowding in prisons suffered a setback last night after a mixup in voting at the Scottish Parliament.
The proposals, which would have meant that for the first time prisoners sentenced to more than four years would be eligible for electronically tagged early release, had been backed by the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, but four Lib Dem MSPs accidentally voted against the plans. The Liberal Democrats blamed this on an administrative error.
A second vote, allowing prisoners to be released into home curfew six months before their planned release date, instead of the present four and a half months, was won by 65 votes to 60.
The SNP reforms were rejected by Holyrood's Justice Committee last week on the casting vote of convener Bill Aitken.
Mr MacAskill said he was pleased the parliament had agreed to extend home detention curfew for certain prisoners to tackle prison overcrowding, but that the failure of the first vote appeared to be an issue of parliamentary procedure rather than principle.
He said the government would be reflecting on how to address this in a way that would balance the needs of prisons with the appropriate parliamentary scrutiny.