LABOUR THREATEN 4,000 POLICE JOBS WITH CRIME PLAN
20% REDUCTION IN SCOTTISH POLICE WOULD CREATE CRIME WAVE
SNP’s TOUGH KNIFE CRIME POLICY ALREADY WORKING
Labour's justice spokesperson is being challenged by Glasgow SNP MSP Anne McLaughlin to explain how he will pay for his mandatory knife crime policy after the Labour candidate in the Glasgow North East by-election said his "colleagues at Holyrood have made a commitment that if that requires extra prison places, that will be funded."
Based on the warnings of Strathclyde Chief Constable Stephen House this Sunday that the prison system would require 5,000 extra places to meet this commitment the cost would be over £155 million.
To pay for this commitment from the Justice Department budget would equal the cost of 3,924 police officers based on the average cost of £39,629 per police constable in 2007-8. That figure of nearly 4,000 equals 22.7% of Scotland's current poilice strength of 17,278 officers or nearly half of Strathclyde Police's 8,390 officers.
Commenting Anne McLaughlin said:
“These figures are staggering and highlight why every person involved in the fight against crime has warned Labour about how unworkable and even dangerous their policy is.
"Since Labour's candidate in the by-election has let the cat out of the bag and told us that Labour's shadow cabinet said it would be paid for, the onus is now on their justice spokesperson to explain where he would get the money from.
"The cost already equals the equivalent of nearly 4,000 police officers - over a fifth of Scotland's police strength and nearly half of Strathclyde's! Far from cutting crime their policy would create a crime wave.
"Crime is a major issue on the doorsteps in Glasgow North East and people feel let down by decades of Labour failing to tackle this scourge on our community.
"Their keystone by-election policy is crumbling under scrutiny and they only have themselves to blame for ignoring all the experts who said it was unworkable; as well as trying to mislead voters with their petition.
“Not only is their policy unworkable, it is also totally inconsistent with the position their Scottish MPs at Westminster support where the Labour government knows mandatory sentencing will not solve the problem.
"The fact is that knife crime in 2008-09 was 11% down on the level the SNP inherited from Labour. It is Labour’s failure to tackle this issue for over 70 years in Glasgow that is the real scandal.
"It is the SNP Government which is taking the tough action on those who carry and use knives, as well as delivering a record number of police officers to catch them.
“We’ve seen jail terms for knife carrying increase by a third under the SNP, while the Justice Secretary has made clear that those who use a knife should expect to go to jail.
"Labour’s campaign is just looking like the usual misleading scaremongering we have all come to expect from a party struggling to come to terms with its loss of power and decades.
1. Cost of Labour's Policy - Prison Places
Labour has said they will introduce mandatory minimum sentences of 1 year for carrying a knife.
According to Chief Constable Stephen House of Strathclyde Police that would mean 5,000 extra prison places would be required.
The current cost of a prison place for one year is £31,106.
Therefore the cost for 5,000 sentences would be: £155,530,000.
1. Cost of Labour's Policy - Police Numbers
Taking the figure of £155,530,000 is the cost of 3,924 policemen based on the average cost of a police constable in 2007-8 as being £39,629 (including salary, pensions liability, worked rest days and employer's NI).
Since there are 17,278 police officers (as of 30 June 2009 - an increase of 1044 since march 2007 ) that would mean a drop of 22.7%, over a fifth.
3. An article in the Scotland on Sunday regarding the remarks of Chief Constable Stephen House of Strathclyde Police on Labour's policy can be read here:
http://scotlandonsunday.
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