Members of the public are being asked their views on the expansion of electronic tagging in Scotland.

Potential new uses for tagging, including technology to monitor alcohol consumption and voluntary schemes for persistent offenders, are being considered by MSPs.

It comes as part of a major expansion of electronic monitoring to help further reduce reoffending levels and keep communities safe, which would see new legislation introduced.

The plans could see tagging used as a condition of a community payback order to give added security of restricting a person's movement while carrying out a sentence involving unpaid work in the community.

Changes being explored include:

Justice secretary Michael Matheson said: "There will always be crimes where a prison sentence is the only reasonable response - but international research backs our experience that prison is not always the most effective way to bring down repeat offending.

"That is why we are considering a major expansion on the way we use electronic monitoring and we want to hear people's views on what those changes should look like.

"This is about effective changes that stop people reoffending, make best use of emerging technology and tackle our high rate of imprisonment - all with the aim of doing more to keep people safe."

Stirling University criminologist and electronic monitoring researcher Dr Hannah Graham said: "This consultation is an important opportunity for people to voice their views because the proposals it contains for new uses of electronic monitoring will require changes to the law to be passed.

"There's a pressing need to reduce unnecessary and costly uses of prison in Scotland and how this is done matters.

"What roles new uses of electronic tagging might play in this are central to what the consultation asks people to comment on."

She added: "International evidence shows electronic monitoring can be used effectively and ethically, without routinely resorting to custody.

"This doesn't mean indiscriminate tagging and surveillance en masse, nor does it mean ignoring victims and families.

"It means tailoring tagging to be fit-for-purpose, with due regard for all affected. This consultation proposes some practical ways of better integrating electronic tagging with supports for rehabilitation to help people leave crime behind."