July 2011 (Alison McInnes)

Alison McInnes <info@alisonmcinnes.co.uk>

July 2011

July 1, 2011 12:01 AM

We're fast approaching the summer recess at Holyrood, but we seem to have packed a lot in already. I've been particularly busy getting up to speed in my new role as the Liberal Democrats' spokesperson on Justice - an area that has hardly been out of the news over the past couple of weeks!

The Government has certainly got off to a bit of a shaky start on a number of Justice issues over the last month, from their extraordinary attack on the Supreme Court, through the condemnation of plans for a single Scotland-wide police force by Chief Police Officers, to the publication of a second damning report by the chief inspector of prisons into the state of Corntonvale women's prison.

And, worst of all, we saw them trying to force controversial new legislation through Parliament that would have meant creating two completely new criminal offences in slightly less than two weeks.

The Anti-Sectarianism Bill

I'm sure readers will have followed the anti-sectarianism bill debate - it dominated the news last week. Now I don't doubt the good intentions behind the "Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Bill" - everyone in parliament wants to see an end to the damaging sectarianism that is still rife in many parts of Scotland - but it is notoriously hard to legislate in this area. Westminster took more than 5 years to introduce the Racial and Religious hatred Act, yet somehow the Government believed that they could manage something similar in 2 weeks.

When the Bill was published I spoke out strongly against rushing things. It was clear even on the first reading that it strayed into areas beyond sectarian chanting at football matches and was likely to create confusion rather than clarity. When the government itself admitted that there were at least seven current offences that could be used to prosecute offenders, few people doubted that the parliament as a whole needed much more time to scrutinise the proposals, yet against all good counsel the government pressed ahead.

That led to farcical scenes last week at a hastily convened Justice Committee when the Minister admitted she couldn't tell us what her bill meant for fans singing 'Flower of Scotland' or the National Anthem, and we discovered that the offence would apply to people travelling to or from a football match even if they did not attend it or never intended to! The Minister was unclear as to what the new law would do. Police were unclear as to how they would be expected to enforce it. Legal experts were unclear as to why it was needed in the first place.

Still, the Government pressed on, and used its majority to force through the first stage of the bill on an emergency timetable. This meant skipping pre-legislative scrutiny, evidence taking and committee consideration - Parliamentary safeguards meant to ensure that every new law we create is in the best interests of the people of Scotland. Making new laws is not a process that should be rushed, and so I voted against the proposals.

Only at the eleventh hour, after the Minister had spent all morning arguing that it was an absolute necessity that the new laws be in place for the start of the football season, did the First Minister finally slam the brakes on. He announced that he had changed his mind and that Parliament would be given more time to consider the impact of the Bill after the summer recess.

I will not criticise him for that. Quite the contrary - I welcome the fact that he listened to other voices in parliament and beyond. But one has to wonder why it took the Government so long to realise the folly of acting so rashly on such an important issue.