If parties want to amend the offensive behaviour at Football Act they can make proposals, the government minister in charge of the Act said.

Annabelle Ewing, Minister for Community safety said she would welcome suggestions to make it more effective.

However she said so far no-one has come up with any.

Glasgow Labour MSP James Kelly had said it was time to scrap the act, which he said discriminated against fans.

He said: “Over the past week, we have quite rightly heard a lot of discussion of how Scotland is an open, progressive and modern country. In that regard, it seems peculiar that we have a piece of legislation that targets football fans when other legislation is in place to deal with such offences.

The 2012 act is illiberal and it has caused friction between police and fans and confusion in the judiciary. As such, does the minister agree that it is time to blow the whistle on this discredited piece of legislation?

Ms Ewing however said the act was working and pointed to the recent violence after the Scottish Cup Final and said an increase in charges shows the act is an “important tool in tackling all forms of offensive behaviour including sectarianism.”

However she was challenged on that logic by Highlands Conservative MSP, Douglass Ross who said when statistics go up the government says it shows we need the act and when they went down last year said it shows the act was working

He asked: “Which of those contradictory statements from the Scottish National Party Government on this deeply unpopular piece of legislation should the public believe?”

Ms Ewing said the Cup Final showed it was still needed.

She said: “Surely the member agrees that it is a matter of great regret that the number of charges under the 2012 act has recently increased.

“Surely he accepts that the recent appalling scenes at the Scottish cup final demonstrated that there is still a problem on the part of a minority of football fans and that we continue to need to tackle the issue.”

She was backed by SNP Shettleston MSP John Mason who agreed and said, after the Cup final scrapping the act would be saying that offensive and sectarian behaviour is acceptable.