Justice Secretary Michael Matheson faces storm over key issues such as football disorder

credit - BBC

The justice brief was one of the problem areas for the SNP during the last parliament, with a series of controversies about policing and civil liberties.

Incidences of police officers being armed during routine call-outs, an initial plan to abolish corroboration in criminal trials and rows about the creation of a single police force were all difficult issues that dogged this policy area for the SNP Government.

However, Nicola Sturgeon’s decision to replace Kenny MacAskill with Michael Matheson as Scotland’s Justice Secretary saw some calm restored after the storm in the eyes of many, with the abolition of corroboration kicked into touch, and more care seemingly taken about the issue of the arming of police officers.

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Matheson has managed to avoid too much controversy since taking over from MacAskill in late 2014 and what was his first full parliamentary year as Justice Secretary ahead of May’s election passed without too much incident.

The justice cabinet brief is always going to be a lively one, with crime and punishment an issue that will always be with us, despite repeated claims from the Scottish Government that ‘crime is at record lows’ under its watch.

Matheson had already earned early plaudits for his ‘no nonsense’ approach when he announced the Scottish Government would not be pressing ahead with the building of a new women’s prison, something that critics said would have been the wrong approach to dealing with female offending – simply opting to lock up more vulnerable and troubled women.

This year Matheson cemented such a fresh approach to penal policy with the announcement that Cornton Vale Women’s Prison would be demolished and replaced with a smaller jail on the same site for long term and high risk inmates.

With regard to the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), Matheson has sought to promote penal reform, although it’s too early to say to what extent he has delivered on such good intentions.

Perhaps the year ahead will give a clearer picture of how successful Matheson is in turning prisons simply from being ‘colleges of crime’ into places which rehabilitate and educate offenders as well as punish those being held in them.

While justice is a policy area that is almost fully in the ambit of the Scottish Government, particularly the issue of criminal justice and prisons, the former UK Justice Secretary Michael Gove had also signalled his backing for penal reform.

Gove, who is, with good reason, viewed as one of the most right-wing Tory cabinet ministers, has surprised many with his comment on justice, with words that seemed a far cry from those of one-time Tory Home Secretary Michael Howard that “prison works”.    

Gove said: “If we really want to fight crime as effectively as possible, we must do more than just incapacitate criminals for the length of their sentence. We need to ensure that when they leave jail they do not offend again.”  

The new UK Justice Secretary, Liz Truss, has so far said little to contradict or support her predecessor’s position.

In David Cameron’s premiership, Matheson also dealt with then Home Secretary Theresa May with his department calling for the Pitchford inquiry, into the activities of undercover police officers in England and Wales, to be extended to Scotland, something Westminster has yet to agree to.

However, the Scottish Government itself has come under pressure to commit to holding its own inquiry into undercover policing controversies in Scotland if Amber Rudd, the new Home Secretary, fails to extend Pitchford’s remit.

Matheson’s deputy at justice, Annabelle Ewing, failed to give such a commitment when pressed by Labour MSP Neil Findlay in the last week before parliament’s summer recess, perhaps a sign of how the Scottish Government’s justice department may have to take more heat on this issue.  

When it comes to policing controversies, Findlay has made fresh calls to the Scottish Government to order a Hillsborough-style inquiry into the policing of the 1984-85 miners’ strike in Scotland, amid criticism of brutality and the wrongful arrest of pickets during the dispute.

Again, that’s an issue that Matheson and his colleagues in the justice department may well have to confront in the year ahead.

Matheson and the SNP Government have consistently been upbeat about what they claim is a high level of policing, and government press releases repeatedly insist that ministers have a grip on crime levels in Scotland.

But there remains concern about the wisdom of having a single national police force in terms of accountability and too much decision making concentrated in the hands of one person, namely, Chief Constable Phil Gormley, who replaced Sir Stephen House during the last year. 

Another big issue for Matheson in the last year has been football-related disorder, which reared its head after the Hibernian versus Rangers Scottish Cup Final, with pitch invasions and scenes of violence.              

Matheson has already issued an ultimatum to Scottish football chiefs, who, he said, had an opportunity to address some of the “negative longstanding issues in the game” in the aftermath of the match-day violence at that final in May.

In a direct reference to action the government had previously taken aimed at curbing sectarianism, Matheson added: “The Offensive Behaviour at Football Act was introduced in 2012 following ugly scenes at a different match and highlights that the Scottish Government – with a mandate to reflect the views of the people of Scotland, and concerns of wider civic society – will act if we don’t think football is doing enough.”

Meanwhile, official figures showed an increase in football-related hate crime, with 287 charges reported to prosecutors under Section 1 of the Act in 2015-16, which is aimed at tackling sectarianism and disorder at football.

All of which suggests that the question of whether there is further Scottish Government action to come over football-related violence may be one of the hot justice issues to watch in the coming year.