Mark Simpson
Reform UK · Scotland
“In a perfect world, we would all like to have fewer people in prison but, sadly, we do not live in a perfect world—we live in a country where victims are far too often forgotten. As we learned this week, sexual crimes in Scotland have hit record highs.”
“Will the member take an intervention? Maggie Chapman: No, not just now. Prison reform should allow us to do the upstream work that we know will help people to avoid prison in the first place.”
“When I was in HMP Grampian, I saw at first hand the intense daily pressures that our prison system faces: chronic overcrowding, serious staff shortages and the constant challenge of managing a revolving-door population. Scotland’s prisons are not sustainable, and that is the fault of the SNP Government.”
“We must have ways of preventing such harm. Indeed, harm reduction must be a cornerstone of our justice system. However, for many people—I would argue that this applies to the vast majority of those who are currently incarcerated, including women, neurodiverse people and people with mental health issues—the evidence overwhelmingly shows th…”
“I welcome the new member for North East Scotland to the chamber. A couple of weeks ago, one of my first actions as a Reform MSP was to visit HMP Grampian, so I have a particular interest in the topic. I had a good chat with the governor when I was there.”
“The current system is failing badly. Too many prisoners leave prison with no job, no stable housing and no meaningful support. Those failures help no one, least of all the victims. We need a stronger stick and a genuine carrot. The stick means that sentences actually deter.”
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“The current system is failing badly. Too many prisoners leave prison with no job, no stable housing and no meaningful support. Those failures help no one, least of all the victims. We need a stronger stick and a genuine carrot. The stick means that sentences actually deter. The carrot means serious, properly funded rehabilitation, education, vocational skills and a throughcare service that gives people a real chance to break the cycle and find genuine, long- term employment that means that they can provide for themselves, their families and their loved ones.”
“In a perfect world, we would all like to have fewer people in prison but, sadly, we do not live in a perfect world—we live in a country where victims are far too often forgotten. As we learned this week, sexual crimes in Scotland have hit record highs. They are up 10 per cent on the previous year, at 16,430 offences, which is the highest level since 1971. That is a national disgrace. Reform says it clearly: victims must come first. Soft sentences for serious and repeat offenders are failing women and girls, and they must stop. Reform supports mandatory minimum sentences for the most serious criminals and tougher sentences for those who repeatedly prey on others. That is not about being punitive for its own sake but about delivering justice for victims and creating a real deterrent. We must also be honest about rehabilitation.”
“When I was in HMP Grampian, I saw at first hand the intense daily pressures that our prison system faces: chronic overcrowding, serious staff shortages and the constant challenge of managing a revolving-door population. Scotland’s prisons are not sustainable, and that is the fault of the SNP Government. The latest reconviction statistics make that brutally clear. Nearly two thirds of current prisoners have had at least one prison sentence in the past 10 years. For those serving short sentences of three months or less, the reoffending rate is a shocking 60 per cent. Criminals must serve their sentences in prison to break that cycle. There are far too many repeat offenders in prison. It has become a normalised process for them and not actual punishment. It has become part of their reality.”
“I welcome the new member for North East Scotland to the chamber. A couple of weeks ago, one of my first actions as a Reform MSP was to visit HMP Grampian, so I have a particular interest in the topic. I had a good chat with the governor when I was there. Had Maggie Chapman or Kate Nevens taken one of my earlier interventions, which they did not, I would have asked whether the Scottish Green Party still has a radical policy of abolishing prisons. I would welcome an intervention from the Greens who are in the chamber to clarify whether the answer to that is yes or no. It seems that no Green member wishes to intervene—there we go.”
“I move amendment S7M-00469.3, to leave out from second “operational” to end and insert: “human rights and safety risks for staff and prisoners; further recognises the importance of prioritising harm reduction across the justice system; believes that incarceration should always be the last resort, once all other alternatives have been exhausted; notes that Scotland has one of the highest prison populations in western Europe, including a disproportionate remand population; acknowledges the underlying drivers, including poverty, inequality, homelessness and experience of the care system; notes that the cost per prisoner per year to the public purse is £52,200; recognises the need for effective rehabilitation to reduce offending and re-offending and to benefit the communities that individuals return to; agrees that public safety is paramount and that it is vital that victims and survivors should be at the heart of the justice system, and must be supported and have confidence in it, and agrees, therefore, that a balanced package of measures to expand effective community sentencing and other alternatives to prison, such as restorative justice, bail supervision and supported accommodation, and to enact preventative measures to stop people entering or re- entering the prison system, including sustained investment in housing, mental health services, youth work, addiction services and community support, as part of a transformative justice approach, are necessary to achieve a sustainable prison population now and in the future.””
“When people commit crime, we must exhaust the whole suite of approaches that work better to punish appropriately and rehabilitate before considering prisons, which most often do neither. When incarceration becomes necessary, those places must have the resources that they need to rehabilitate and genuinely help people to do better in the future. Only then can incarceration genuinely be the last resort, rather than a place where we warehouse the problems that society has chosen not to solve.”
“We must have ways of preventing such harm. Indeed, harm reduction must be a cornerstone of our justice system. However, for many people—I would argue that this applies to the vast majority of those who are currently incarcerated, including women, neurodiverse people and people with mental health issues—the evidence overwhelmingly shows that prisons not only do not work but actually make things worse. We cannot keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results—there is a word for that. However, we do not have to do so, because other countries have shown us the way. We must understand the socioeconomic causes of crime and tackle them accordingly.”
“Will the member take an intervention? Maggie Chapman: No, not just now. Prison reform should allow us to do the upstream work that we know will help people to avoid prison in the first place. The Scottish Government’s penal policy advisers have cited evidence from the Edinburgh study of youth transitions and crime that shows that poverty, poor housing, unemployment and weak community infrastructure increase the risks of social exclusion and fuel distrust and disaffection, which ultimately increases the risk of conflict with the law. The same advisers have said that, when people do fall foul of the law, we need much more focus on early intervention pathways, because formal prosecution often escalates problems, increases stigma and limits opportunities for change. Some people pose a significant risk of harm to society.”
“To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reported pressures on policing and the justice system, including the local effects of migration, what action it is taking to promote community cohesion across Scotland. (S7O-00070)”
“To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address staffing pressures across the prison estate through its programme of public sector reform. (S7O-00040)”
“On tax, we believe that a pound in your pocket is better than a pound in the Government’s hands. We want to put money back in people’s pockets, to stimulate growth. We believe in trusting the Scottish people. I will conclude by saying that we are looking forward to the next five years. Reform has been trusted for the first time to deliver for Scotland. What we want to be judged on at the end of those five years is how we have positively made the case that Reform is able to deliver the solutions to the woes of many, many Scots.”
“The Conservatives are not much better. They brought in the energy profits levy and the legislation that meant that we had to try to achieve net zero by 2050. They are not even here in the chamber. What now? Those are some of the problems, so what is Reform UK going to do to change that? On energy and the North Sea, we are going to abandon net stupid zero and get the North Sea pumping again. In doing that, we are going to bring back thousands of jobs and billions of pounds in tax revenue, and we are going to stop importing oil and gas from Norway and gambling on unreliable renewables. On immigration, we have a very simple policy: anyone who has entered this country illegally will be detained and deported. We will make sure that women and girls are safe from these mostly fighting-age men who are coming over the channel.”
“Over the bank holiday weekend, we saw about 1,000 people, mainly young men of fighting age, coming over the English Channel. That has resulted in Glasgow becoming the asylum capital of the UK. On net zero and energy, which is pertinent to what we are discussing today, the policies of the establishment parties have failed the average Scot. The SNP said that it would bring in net zero by 2045, five years ahead of the UK. The SNP talks about a just transition for oil and gas workers, but the sad reality is that there is no such thing as a just transition for oil and gas workers. The reality is that 1,000 jobs are being lost per month in the north-east. I will not spend too long talking about Labour, because their failings are pretty apparent, but we can look at Ed Miliband banning new drilling and at Labour’s windfall tax.”
“Those earning £50,000 a year in Scotland are paying £1,500 more tax than those in the rest of the UK, and top-rate taxpayers are paying 48 per cent in tax. People feel that they have less and less cash in their pockets. On safety and crime, the number of recorded rapes and attempted rapes reached almost 3,000 in 2024-25, which is a 15 per cent increase on the previous year. That should shame us all deeply. On schools and education, we have seen the scores from the programme for international student assessment declining significantly in the past decade, especially in maths and science. We must ensure that our children are given the best possible start in life. Scots were also voting on UK-wide issues during the election. One of those was immigration.”
“We do not take that lightly. It has been disappointing to hear what some of my new colleagues have said about locking Reform out of influence or about how they would rather Reform was not here. We are here, and we hope that we can collaborate on areas where we can come together. During the campaign, I asked the people I spoke to the simple question, “What is getting better for you?” There was not a great deal, but I will share some of what they told me. They brought up the cost of living. Those people have seen their disposable incomes rise no higher than they were a decade ago and families are being forced to choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table. That is simply not acceptable. People have never been taxed higher.”
“Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I congratulate you on your election to the post. It probably goes without saying that I am delighted to be standing here today representing North East Scotland, a place that I am proud to call home. I want to start by being thankful. I am thankful to the 383,000 Scots who voted for Reform across the country. That is an honour, and we want to thank them all. Across North East Scotland, 60,000 voters were responsible for putting me here, and, again, I am thankful to them. I want to be thankful to volunteers from across the region, from Peterhead to Braemar to Dundee. We have two by-elections going on in the north-east, and those volunteers are still going at it hard, campaigning, so I thank them again. I note that this is the first time that Reform has been in the Scottish Parliament.”
“When John Swinney was voted in as First Minister last week, he said: “All too often in Parliaments, I have watched members celebrate when bold proposals are blocked, seemingly for political expediency rather than for any substantial concerns.”—[Official Report, 19 May 2026; c 33.] The First Minister offered to work across party lines, because that is what people expect. My proposals to introduce a recall system were rejected in the previous session of the Parliament, which was a missed opportunity. The First Minister backs recall in principle. Will he agree to consider how we can best look at it again, either by me bringing my proposals back, by a committee being formed to look at the issue, or through some other option?”
“I, Mark Simpson, do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King Charles, his heirs and successors, according to law. So help me”