An early review of controversial laws intended to stamp out religious sectarian abuse at football matches is being considered by MSPs.
Members of Holyrood’s Justice Committee want to address concerns raised by fans about the impact of the legislation.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland and Chief Constable Sir Stephen House will be asked to respond to the committee within two weeks before a formal decision is taken.
The cross-party agreement follows attempts by opposition MSPs on the committee to force an immediate ruling on whether to look again at the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act which received Royal Assent in January last year.
An agreement was made at the time for the Scottish Government to review the operation of the offences after two full football seasons and to report back to Parliament by August 2015.
But concerns have since been raised by fans about police tactics and the Act in general. Independent MSP John Finnie said there is now a case to answer.
“When we’re down to a sizeable group of people feeling that a piece of legislation disproportionately impacts on them, then I’d like to have an early review,” he told the committee.
Conservative MSP Margaret Mitchell backed his proposal and said: “Clearly there is a lot of concern about how this legislation is operating in practice and about the drafting of it initially. It concerns me too about the amount of resource going to it.”
SNP MSP Sandra White, supported by party colleagues, said there is already a provision to review the law after two full seasons.
“I don’t think it will serve any purpose whatsoever for us to look at a separate investigation,” she said.
Labour MSP Elaine Murray said she received only a small number of letters on the subject.
“But I think there are issues about the operation of the Act,” she said.
Liberal Democrat MSP Alison McInnes said fans are now putting their heads above the parapet.
“I’d prefer a proper review that let us draw evidence on that,” she said.
The committee agreed to support convener Christine Grahame’s call for responses from government, the Lord Advocate and police.
She cautioned against splitting the committee on the issue, and said: “It doesn’t need to be a long time away. We could get a time-scale of a couple of weeks to get a reply. It’s not really kicking it into the long grass.”