Justice Pledges Explained: What Scotland’s solicitors need to know about 2026 election including hate crime abolition and legal aid reform

As the Scottish parliamentary election 2026 approaches, the Journal explores justice and legal reform pledges from the main political parties, pledges which include abolishing hate crime laws and expanding legal aid traineeship funding.

Updated on Monday, April 20 to incorporate release of Scottish Liberal Democrat manifesto.

Polling stations across Scotland will open for this year's ballot at 7am on Thursday, May 7. Many voters have already received their postal ballots and are making an early decision.

A total of 129 MSPs will be elected and returned to Holyrood for a new parliamentary session which could look — politically, at least — markedly different from the past five years.

Latest polling suggests a surge in support for Reform UK led by Malcolm Offord. But pollsters and analysts nevertheless predict another SNP government is the most likely outcome.

Earlier this year, the Law Society of Scotland published a six-step 'roadmap to justice and prosperity' ahead of the election. These key asks of the parties included the championing of human rights and the making of good laws.

Society's six key priorities

Respecting the rule of law and championing human rights

Making good laws through clear and workable legislation

Delivering access to justice to all who need it

Modernising our justice system for the future

Broadening Scotland’s legal talent pipeline

Making justice and the law a catalyst for economic growth

Society President Patricia Thom said: "Respect for the rule of law and a commitment to good law making are essential features of any effective government. It is vital that MSPs speak up to defend our democracy and the independence of our courts and judiciary, and that legislative processes are transparent and evidence based."

Let's take a look at the key justice and legal reform pledges from each of the main party manifestos.

The parties are listed in alphabetical order.

Reform UK

• Increase police pay across the board
• Reduce police workload
• Repeal Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act
• Abolish Scottish Sentencing Council and restore ministerial oversight
• Harsher prison sentences for repeat offenders
• End 'balance between retribution and rehabilitation' in sentencing and focus on public safety
• Increase prison capacity
• Repeal land reform laws
• Implement formal 10 yearly review of Schedule Five powers
• End public inquiries which 'transfer taxpayers' money to lawyers'
• Create fast-track planning regime

Mentions of 'legal aid': 0

Read the full Reform UK manifesto here.

Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party

• Stop Scottish Government ministers overturning planning decisions made at local level
• Pursue Marriage Modernisation Act to raise minimum age of marriage to 18 and ban first-cousin marriage
• Increase police patrols and prevent closure of local stations
• End 'non-crime hate incidents'
• Scrap under-25 sentencing guidelines and moratorium on short-term prison sentences
• Life sentences for child rapists and tougher sexual offences sentencing overall
• Whole life sentences for murder
• Introduce 'Claire's Law' to restrict use of bail
• Increased stop and search powers to tackle knife crime
• New offence of misconduct in a public office for Scotland
• Increase prison capacity
• New domestic abuse register to monitor abusers
• Draw up legislation to allow Scotland to send prisoners abroad to prevent early release
• Pursue new Victim Rights Act
• Lord Advocate's dual role abolished
• Prisoners banned from voting in Holyrood elections
• Comprehensive review into legal aid prosivion
• Consider 'register of interests' for the judiciary
• Guarantee jury trials remain part of justice process

Mentions of 'legal aid': 4

Read the full Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party manifesto here.

Scottish Greens

• Introduce Misogyny and Criminal Justice Bill
• Decriminalise sex work
• Undertake citizens' assembly to develop justice reform proposals
• Introduce Legal Aid Reform Bill including changing eligibility thresholds and expanding aid, advice and advocacy
• Expand presumption against short term prison sentences
• Updated licensing laws to protect food delivery gig workers
• Devolution of employment law and repeal anti-union legislation
• Reform culpable homicide laws to ensure homicides against workers are treated in the same way as involuntary killings in community
• Introduce Human Rights Bill with public sector duty to act
• 'Properly-funded' legal aid
• Incorporate UN Convention on Rights of Disabled People into Scots law
• Comprehensive ban on conversion therapy
• Call on UK Government to remove block on Gender Recognition legislation
• Roll out safe drug consumption facilities
• Reduce criminalisation of people who buy drugs
• Call for devolved powers on drug legislation
• Decriminalise abortion and remove 'two doctor rule'
• Initiate Section 30 process in Scotland Act to call for devolution of remaining powers
• Call for UK Government to abolish Internal Markets Act
• Update Scotland's Freedom of Information legislation
• Introduce 'radical' Land Reform Bill

Mentions of 'legal aid': 13

Read the full Scottish Greens manifesto here.

Scottish Labour

• Giving every neighbourhood a named community and crime prevention officer.
• Scrapping sentencing guidelines for under-25s
• Preventing bail for those with histories of violence to women, to protect victims of domestic abuse
• Criminalising the exploitation of children, holding to account those who seek to take advantage of young people
• Funding 40 legal aid traineeships annually
• Legislating for tougher regulation on the sale of all knives
• Increasing the value of antisocial behavioural fines
• Prioritising mental health and rehabilitation services in prisons
• Modernising data collection across the justice system
• Establishing Youth Remediation Orders as new community sentences
• Closing legal loopholes around sexual deepfakes
• Preventing bail for those with histories of violence to women
• Modernising the victims’ notification scheme and communications
• Removing parental rights of child sex offenders
• Modernising the court system to reduce delays
• Expanding pilots for independent legal representation for victims of serious sexual crime
• Agreeing on a sustainable approach to legal aid
• Tightening the rules around government legal action, with new public interest tests in the Scottish Ministerial Code
• Splitting the dual role of the Lord Advocate

Mentions of 'legal aid': 6

Read the full Scottish Labour manifesto here.

Scottish Liberal Democrats

• Strengthen the Retail Crime Taskforce to make high streets safer
• Reduce re-offending through the use of robust community sentences and by giving prisoners better education
• Double the fixed penalty for littering
• Bringing the age of criminal responsibility in line with United Nations recommendations
• Help young people at risk of offending through early intervention and mentorship, including bringing forward a Youth Work Bill
• Tackle misogyny and violence against women and girls
• Save police officers time by cutting back their involvement in issuing court citations, improving trial scheduling and through their giving evidence remotely
• Prevent the early release of individual prisoners where they have a history of assaulting the police
• Reduce cost and frequency of remand
• Invest in community-based measures to ensure that there are credible punishments beyond imprisonment for lower-level offences.
• Bring into force the right for all victims of crime to be notified of decisions not to prosecute building on the introduction of Suzanne’s Law and Michelle’s Law
• Give grieving families the swift answers they deserve and preserve other peoples’ right to life by overhauling fatal accident inquiries

Mentions of 'legal aid': 1

Read the full Scottish Liberal Democrat manifesto here.

Scottish National Party (SNP)

• Reduce police officer court and hospital hours by expanding mental health triage cars scheme
• Anti-social e-bike and e-scooter confiscation powers 
• Increased use of Football Banning Orders
• Banning using technology to create and possess deepfake intimate images
• Make pregnancy an aggravating factor in domestic abuse cases
• Introduction of Misogyny Bill to outlaw harassment and abuse
• Criminalise the purchase of sex
• Improve interaction between civil and criminal courts in domestic abuse cases
• Development of a Victims Charter
• Establish specialist trauma-informed sexual offences court
• Remove so-called 'crime of passion' defence of provocation in homicide law
• Fund two new prisons to open in next parliamentary term
• Introduce Legal Aid Reform Bill in the first year to ensure 'responsive legal assistance framework' to ensure access to justice for all who need it
• Give cohabitants better financial rights and extend simplified divorce procedure to cases with children where couples are amicable
• Introduce anti Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation legislation

Mentions of 'legal aid': 5

Read the full Scottish National Party manifesto here.