Moves over right to vote for prisoners

THE Scottish Government has launched a consultation to decide whether to grant the vote to prisoners on short sentences.

The European Convention on Human Rights found in 2005 that the UK’s blanket ban on prisoner voting was in breach of its article requiring government to support an individual’s right to free expression by holding free elections at reasonable intervals.

Holyrood gained new powers over elections as a result of the Scotland Act in 2016 and MSPs are now able to give consideration as to how to comply.

The Scottish Government has said it “it is not appropriate to give all prisoners the right to vote” but indicated it would support it for those on short sentences.