The UK’s political parties outlined their policy pledges to voters during the election campaign, which we analyse below. Many aspects of justice and policing are devolved to Holyrood, but the Scottish parties also took the opportunity to set out how they would tackle the issues should they win power after the next Scottish Parliament election in 2026.
Police policy pitches
Scottish Conservatives
The Scottish Conservatives want to be seen as ‘tough on criminals’, a stance that usually resonates with the party’s traditional supporters.
Their manifesto promises to put 1,000 additional police officers into communities and introduce a Local Policing Act to boost patrols, allowing for community input into policing decisions.
Other pledges include no further delays to the rollout of body-worn cameras for officers and plans to double sentencing for attacks on emergency workers.
They also want to scrap the Hate Crime Act and replace it with “a law that defends free speech in Scotland”.
The party has proposed a new law to create a domestic abuse register, similar to the sex offenders’ register, and legislation to create a standalone spiking offence.
These areas are devolved and would only come into force if the Scottish Tories gained power at Holyrood.
South of the border, the Conservatives have pledged to increase the number of community police officers by 8,000, alongside hotspot policing for every force to cut anti-social behaviour.
They are also promising to toughen sentences for offences including knife crime, grooming, and assaults against retail workers.
They want to crack down on organised immigration crime through the National Crime Agency and intelligence services, to disrupt supply chains and tackle people smugglers.
Scottish Labour
Much of Scottish Labour’s manifesto also raises criminal justice issues.
The party describes Police Scotland as being “gutted”, court backlogs delaying justice, and the country’s “sense of security” having been “slowly eroded over the past 17 years” under the SNP.
The document states that it wants to see “community policing numbers restored,” with the party supporting the full rollout of body-worn cameras.
Scottish Labour also wants to improve police accountability “with a role for local government in local policing plans”.
It is also calling for an overhaul of community sentencing monitoring through an overhaul of the country’s “outdated electronic tagging system” and “new tech to track” those freed on bail.
Meanwhile, Labour has pledged an extra 13,000 constables and Police Community Support Officers in England and Wales.
Policies that a UK Labour government would be able to implement in Scotland include greater collaboration between UK police forces on cybercrime, fraud, trafficking, and terrorism.
The manifesto states that ninja swords, zombie-style blades, and machetes will be banned and rules strengthened to prevent their sale online.
Labour has also pledged to add new provisions to the Online Safety Act and explore further measures to keep people safe, especially while using social media.
SNP
The word ‘police’ only makes one appearance in the SNP manifesto.
As responsibility for policing is devolved to Holyrood, it is likely to feature more heavily in the party’s plans for the 2026 Scottish Parliament election.
One of the document’s key pledges is tackling Scotland’s drugs death crisis by taking a “radical public health approach”, including the decriminalisation of drugs for personal use and the rollout of supervised drug consumption facilities like the one planned in Glasgow.
The manifesto commits the SNP to working to reverse Brexit, arguing that rejoining the EU would lead to a “safer Scotland” through closer collaboration with European police on cross-border crime, serious organised crime, cybercrime and terrorism.
It also promises that its Westminster MPs will push the UK Government to focus on “countering disinformation and misinformation” and better protecting national critical infrastructure, which it states will improve national security.
On specific UK legislation, the manifesto backs the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, which is intended to ensure that venues and councils have preventative plans in place against terror attacks in the wake of Manchester Arena bombing in 2017.
It also calls for rigorous enforcement of the Online Safety Act, which is designed to protect children and adults online, by ensuring that technology companies bear responsibility for the content accessed through their platforms.
Scottish Liberal Democrats
The party’s Scottish manifesto focuses on how it would be able to influence UK-wide policing and justice issues with strong representation at Westminster, including a pledge to “properly resource” the National Crime Agency to fight serious and organised criminals.
It also promises to combat the rise of fraud and scams by naming and shaming banks with the worst records on reimbursing victims, as well as forcing them to refund people who fall victim to sophisticated ‘push payment scams’ – where people are tricked into authorising payments to fraudsters – unless the customer is clearly at fault.
The manifesto has commitments on improving cross-border policing and clamping down on human trafficking, the drug trade, cybercrime and terrorism. It states the party would achieve this by working with Europol to develop a joint strategy on such threats.
On a similar theme, it states it would work to restore real-time access for UK police to EU-wide data sharing systems.
Other policies include a new law cracking down on puppy and kitten smuggling, while in England and Wales it would scrap anti-protest laws introduced by the Conservatives and halt the use of live facial recognition surveillance by police.
Other parties
The Scottish Green Party dedicates a full page of its manifesto to drugs, calling for fundamental reform of the law on the possession of illegal substances. It states the UK Government should either decriminalise the possession of drugs or devolve this power to Holyrood. It also argues that the cultivation of cannabis for personal use should be legal.
Its manifesto also calls for the repeal of the “anti-protest” Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act and a ban on the use of CCTV systems manufactured by companies with proven links to the Chinese regime. At the England and Wales level, its sister party states it will seek to make misogyny a hate crime and develop a new UK-wide strategy to tackle gender-based violence.
There was no mention of policing or justice in the Alba Party’s manifesto, which focused on seven key areas with a firm emphasis on independence.
However, the document backed community rehabilitation services for those recovering from addiction as part of a commitment to tackling inequality.
Rather than publishing a manifesto, Reform UK published a ‘contract’ setting out its main priorities, with no separate plan for Scotland. On policing, it commits to increasing per capita police numbers in the UK to 300 for every 100,000 people, equating to an increase of 40,000 officers over five years.
It also calls for the scrapping of all diversity, equality and inclusion roles within the police, a “zero tolerance policing clampdown” on all crime and antisocial behaviour, and the creation of a new offence of “substantial possession of drugs” punishable through heavy fines.