Knife Crime: Labour want carriers to go to jail as standard. Pic: © STV
Plans to introduce mandatory six-month jail sentences for anyone caught carrying a knife will be launched by Labour on Wednesday.
The party will lodge amendments to the Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill at Holyrood after winning the support of thousands of Scots for its Carry a Knife - Go to Jail campaign.
Labour leader Iain Gray will be joined in Edinburgh by knife campaigner John Muir, whose son Damian, 34, was killed in a brutal knife attack in Greenock three years ago.
Mr Muir since campaigned for automatic jail sentences for those caught carrying knifes.
Labour justice spokesman Richard Baker said: "When Labour doubled the sentence for knife crime it was the right thing to do but it has not made the impact that the public wanted.
"Only a mandatory minimum sentence in the same way gun crime is dealt with will make the changes that the public expect.
"Knife criminals need to understand - if you carry a blade you will be caught, you will be prosecuted and you will go to jail.
"I have been all over Scotland campaigning on this issue and time and again I have heard the same thing."
The amendment to the Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill is modelled on the current firearms law and states that the courts will be compelled to give custodial sentences for knife criminals unless there are exceptional circumstances.
But the plans were branded "woefully inadequate" by the Tories who say they have long backed mandatory knife sentences.
Community safety spokesman John Lamont said: "Knife crime reached epidemic proportions when Labour was in Government in Scotland.
"It is too bad that it has taken Labour so long to realise that there was a problem and that urgent action was required.
"However, although we do welcome their conversion to our policy, Labour's plans are woefully inadequate."
Mr Muir was among those who spoke a summit on knife crime in Holyrood last year which brought together young people, lawyers, leading police officers, the churches and social workers.
It also included representatives from groups including Victim Support Scotland, Medics Against Violence and Mothers Against Murder and Aggression.
However Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: "The Scottish Government is taking tough action on those who carry and use knives, as well as delivering a record number of police officers to catch them - with recorded crime in Scotland at its lowest level for nearly 30 years.
"We've seen jail terms for knife-carrying increase by a third, and I have made it clear that those who use a knife should expect to go to jail."
One of the proposals in the Government's Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill is to create a sentencing council. Ministers argue that having such a body to consider sentencing would be more appropriate.
Mr MacAskill has said he would not be unhappy if a sentencing council decided it should be presumed that a person will go to prison if they are found carrying a knife, unless there are strong mitigating factors.
The Justice Secretary also said: "The Scottish Government are also working to change the culture around violence in Scotland. Our award-winning No Knives, Better Lives initiative is working directly with young people to explain the dangers and consequences of carrying a knife.
"Through CashBack For Communities we are investing at least £13million through to 2011 in youth diversionary activities across Scotland to give young people things to do and keep them away from knives."
