A six month mandatory sentence for carrying a knife would cost the taxpayer almost £21 million, while a two year mandatory sentence would cost nearly £84 million, Liberal Democrats can reveal.

Liberal Democrat research shows that an extra 1,345 offenders would be sent to prison under Labour and Tory proposals, potentially costing around £31,106 each.

Labour proposes a mandatory sentence of at least 6 months and the Conservatives propose a minimum sentence of 2 years.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Justice spokesman Robert Brown said:

“Labour and Conservative proposals are pie in the sky.

“Scotland’s jails are overcrowded as it is. If an extra 1,345 offenders were sent to prison, we’d need to build another Barlinnie just to house them all. And all the evidence suggests most of them would come out of prison worse than they went in, and a more serious danger to the public.

“Our research shows that sending 1,345 extra offenders to prison for six months, as proposed by Labour, would cost £20,918,785. To send them to prison for two years, as the Conservatives want would cost £83,675,140.

“Liberal Democrats think this money would be better spent keeping knives out of young people’s hands and battling against gang culture.

“Mandatory sentences are unworkable, ineffective and completely unaffordable.

“Possession of a knife in public is already rightly a serious crime, for which people can expect to go to jail.

“The appropriate sentence in individual cases must be a matter for the courts, not politicians.”