The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee will conclude its work this Parliament in March 2026 ahead of the next Scottish Parliament election. So the Committee has time to complete its work, it has agreed not to consider petitions submitted after 10 October.
The Committee will continue to meet but given the volume of petitions and agreed work programme it is unlikely that the Committee would be able to meaningfully progress work on petitions submitted after 10 October ahead of the election. Petitions lodged after this date will not fall when the Parliament is dissolved and will be for the successor committee to consider in the new session.
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Closed petition PE1881: Longer sentences for paedophiles and sexual predators
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to increase the length of time sexual predators serve in jail.
Previous action taken
I contacted Collette Stevenson MSP for East Kilbride and also contacted the First Minister via email. I received a reply on behalf of Collette Stevenson in full support of this petition.
Background information
Myself and other girls are victims of a serial paedophile and after 33 years he was finally sentenced for the crimes against us. Unfortunately he was sentenced to a short-term sentence of 20 months (reduced to 10 months). I believe that this is not nearly long enough given the severity of his crimes against children.
I strongly believe that the current sentence for people who have abused children, carried out a rape or those who have sexually assaulted another member of the public is not nearly long enough yet offences with less significant harm to others get far longer. These victims go through a life sentence yet the perpetrators barely spend any time behind bars.
A lot of victims of these crimes do not come forward as they do not believe that the time their offenders will receive is long enough, and I would really like this as something that should be changed.
This petition was considered by the Scottish Parliament
2,293 signatures