An average of 25 knife crimes are being committed across Scotland every day, according to government figures released last week, with only a marginal drop in knife crime across Scotland.

“It is clear that the SNP’s inaction on knife crime is damaging Scotland,” Labour justice spokesman Richard Baker said today.

“These figures should be a wake-up call to Kenny MacAskill.”

He said: “With 25 knife crimes recorded by the police every day it’s becoming increasingly clear that minimum sentences as proposed by Labour are now essential to stem the tide of assaults that are blighting Scotland’s communities.

“Kenny MacAskill might have ruled out getting tough on knife thugs. I haven’t.”

Labour will now try to amend the forthcoming criminal justice and licensing Bill to introduce a minimum sentence for knife crime. The party have not set out how long this would be, but have previously said that six months to a year would be “reasonable”

Mr Baker added: “If any party rejects this they will be showing their true colours on crime in Scotland.”

The figures last week showed that over 2008/09 crimes of handling an offensive weapon were up in the Central, Fife, Grampian, Lothian and Borders and Tayside police force areas.

But the figures were down in Dumfries and Galloway, Northern and Strathclyde. Across Scotland, the number of these offences fell by just nine from 8,989 to 8,980.