By Steve Bargeton, political editor

THE SCOTTISH Tories raised the prospect of using lie detector tests in the fight against crime as part of a £1 billion law and order blitz.

Yesterday the party unveiled a series of proposals before the Holyrood elections, including an additional prison.

The law and order manifesto, launched by party leader Annabel Goldie, promises 1500 extra police, a crackdown on youth crime, and an end to automatic early release from prison.

The party would introduce a “three strikes and you’re out policy” for persistent offenders (offend three times and the offender goes to jail) and invest £100 million a year on drug rehabilitation.

The law and order manifesto notes that releasing sex offenders from jail and housing them is a source of “public anxiety” and proposes giving them lie detector tests and tracking them by satellite technology.

The Tories would start building another prison “immediately” and spend £80 million on more cells in existing prisons.

Persistent offenders handed their third jail sentence would serve additional jail time proportionate to previous sentences.

All prisoners would have random drug tests and searches.