Hansard

I extend my thanks to the Parliament’s authorities for their co-operation in expediting the work on this motion, which will enable the Parliament’s position to be communicated to the United Kingdom Government before the conclusion of the bill’s progress at the House of Lords in early January. I also thank members of the Criminal Justice Committee for their input yesterday, and I look forward to the discussion this afternoon.

I seek the Parliament’s approval for this motion to provide legislative consent to the UK Government’s amendments to its Sentencing Bill. After on-going engagement with the UK Government on the relevant provisions and further engagement with the Scottish Prison Service and the Parole Board for Scotland, the Scottish Government recommends that the Parliament agree to the motion for legislative consent in relation to the UK Government's amendments.

The UK Government introduced the Sentencing Bill on 2 September 2025 to implement the recommendations set out in the report of the independent sentencing review led by the Rt Hon David Gauke, which was published in October 2024. The bill intends to make changes to the sentencing framework and the management of offenders in the criminal justice system in England and Wales. That includes changes to the sentencing of lower-level offences, release provisions for some prisoners, community order requirements and the restrictions that are available for post-prison supervision.

The areas of law that are covered by the Sentencing Bill are largely reserved. Otherwise, its provisions extend only to England and Wales. However, on 14 October 2025, during the bill’s progress through the UK Parliament, the UK Government tabled amendments that seek to change the sentencing and release arrangements that currently apply to individuals who are sentenced for a national security offence to match those that apply to individuals who are sentenced for a terrorism offence. That means that all such prisoners will be considered for parole after serving two thirds of their sentence, rather than short-term prisoners being subject to automatic release at 40 per cent of their sentence—as they normally would be—or long-term prisoners being considered for parole for the first time at half of their sentence.

As a result of that change, several consequential and technical amendments are required to ensure that those provisions could also operate as intended in Scotland. The legislative consent of the Scottish Parliament is required in relation to those amendments, because we consider that the changes that are being proposed would alter the executive competence of the Scottish ministers in relation to their functions that concern the release of that type of prisoner.

The changes are expected to have little to no operational impact on the Scottish Prison Service, the Parole Board for Scotland or justice social work services in Scotland due to there commonly being a low number of prisoners with that sentence type held in Scottish prisons. The SPS has reported that there are currently no such prisoners in the Scottish prison population.

However, although the impact might be minimal, I strongly advise the Parliament to consent to the changes. It is sensible to ensure alignment with England and Wales with regard to the sentencing of offenders who are convicted of a national security offence. National security offences are considered on a UK-wide basis. Thus, consistency in the treatment of such offenders is important with regard to sentencing and release. In fact, non-consent to the amendments might mean that the regime for the management of national security offenders in Scotland could be considered to be less stringent when compared with that in the rest of the UK. That would leave Scotland at risk of being considered a more attractive location for state threat actors and other offenders in the national security category.

Thus, the legislative consent of the Scottish Parliament is essential to ensure consistency between Scotland and the rest of the UK with regard to the sentencing of national security offences and to also ensure that Scotland does not become less stringent in the treatment of such offences. In light of those points, I urge the Parliament to support the legislative consent motion.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees that all relevant provisions of the Sentencing Bill, introduced in the House of Commons on 2 September 2025, and subsequently amended, affecting changes which align the treatment of national security offenders with terrorist offenders under the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 and the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993, so far as these matters alter the executive competence of the Scottish Ministers, should be considered by the UK Parliament.