EVERYONE found guilty of a sectarian offence should be put on an rehab course, according to a Glasgow MSP.

EVERYONE found guilty of a sectarian offence should be put on an rehab course, according to a Glasgow MSP.

Bill Butler, Anniesland Labour MSP, called for the education measure after figures revealed that more than half of all sectarian-related crime in Scotland occurred in Glasgow.

Of the 252 people convicted last year of a crime aggravated by religious hatred, 129 were in Glasgow. Lanarkshire came next with 50 offences. Overall, the west of Scotland accounted for 85% of the country's total.

Argyll and Clyde had 25 and Ayrshire reported just 12 such cases.

A programme for offenders to address their behaviour is offered to prisoners at Polmont Young Offenders' Institute.

Now Mr Butler has asked Fergus Ewing, minister for community safety, to roll out the programme for all offenders.

He said: "These statistics provide a stark indication of the work still to be done in order to rid Scotland of sectarianism.

"It is imperative that when individuals are convicted of bigoted behaviour they are put through a rigorous rehab programme in order to ensure that they do not re-offend and continue to peddle religious hatred."

But the Government say it would be too costly to extend the Polmont programme.

Mr Butler added: "I hope that these damning statistics will now force the Scottish Government to act."

However while the Scottish Government said it was tackling sectarianism through a range of initiatives there are no plans to extend the rehabilitation programme to other jails or to more offenders.

Mr Ewing told Mr Butler: "We looked closely at such an initiative.

"Unfortunately, the initiative was overly ambitious and could not be achieved without the provision of a significant amount of new funding. In the current financial climate, that is not realistic."

Every one of the 11 procurator fiscal areas in Scotland recorded a sectarian aggravated offence. Grampian and Fife had one each, Highlands and Islands, Tayside and Dumfries and Galloway all reported three while Central had 12 and Lothian and Borders showed 13.