Hansard

I thank Alison McInnes and my other Liberal Democrat colleagues for highlighting reoffending. I welcome their shared commitment to tackling this difficult issue. As Alison McInnes eloquently narrated, reoffending creates victims, damages communities and wastes the potential of offenders themselves. It comes at a significant cost, it is a waste of talent and it damages our communities. It is something that we must tackle if we are to have the safer and stronger communities that we all want to have.

I will try to say more on this if I have time, but the purpose of our amendment is not to detract in any way from the ethos of what Alison McInnes is proposing. Indeed, we are happy to look at matters, and I give her that undertaking.

Prison will always be the right place for some offenders. Those who have committed the most serious crimes and who present the greatest threat to the public must always go to jail. However, it is the wrong place for many of those who are in our jails today—the low-level, repeat offenders. They are a nuisance in our communities and they are frequently destructive, but they are not necessarily a danger. They need alcohol and drug services and, as Alison McInnes pointed out, they need mentors to show them a better way of life and services that actively address their offending behaviour. Such services need to be available both within prisons, for those who are serving a custodial sentence, and in the community, for those who have been released and those who have been given a community sentence as a direct alternative.

Since we came into government in 2007, we have been working to tackle reoffending, which is probably the single biggest challenge that we face. We introduced the presumption against prison sentences of less than three months and we were grateful for the support that the Liberal Democrats gave at that time. We introduced the presumption for the reason that Alison McInnes articulated in her speech—because such sentences simply do not work. Three quarters of those who are given a custodial sentence of six months or less reoffend within two years, whereas two thirds of those who are given a tough community sentence do not. Given the cost of such custodial sentences, they are simply not economic, and moreover they do not work. They simply produce the churn and cycle of reoffending that harms so many communities.

On that basis, we created the community payback order, which is an effective alternative to short-term prison sentences. We are rolling out nationwide the award-winning whole system approach for young people who offend, and we have improved the information that those who sentence offenders require in order to impose the most appropriate sentence for the individual and the community in which they reside.

Alongside those measures, we have invested in the prison service and, of course, in work to reduce reoffending. Since 2007, we have invested £368 million in the prison infrastructure. As Alison McInnes pointed out, this week sees the first prisoners move into the new, state-of-the-art Low Moss prison, which has been delivered on time and on budget. It is run by the Scottish Prison Service and its staff.

Offenders in the prison will be expected to work or to be involved in other purposeful activity for 35 hours a week. When offenders are expected to be working or to be engaged in another useful activity, power in their cells will be switched off. Prison staff will work with those who are in custody for the first time and those who are persistent offenders to help them to stop offending.

In the spending review, we announced a reducing reoffending change fund of £7.5 million. We intend to use the fund to bring about changes so that services that are effective in reducing reoffending are supported sustainably, are expanded and are embedded in mainstream provision. I do not know the precise detail of the matter that Alison McInnes referred to, but I am happy to look at it. We recognise that much of the work in this area is provided by the third sector, whether by Routes Out of Prostitution, the agency that she referred to, Sacro or others. They provide an outstanding service.

As I said, I welcome the fact that the Liberal Democrats have a shared commitment to tackling reoffending. I agree that we need to be open to looking at all fresh approaches to funding in this area, whether social impact bonds, public-social partnerships or other options. We are working actively with partners, including the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, voluntary organisations and others with relevant expertise, to develop options for a new system of community justice funding. As the First Minister has said, we do not claim to be the fount of all wisdom. We recognise that not everything can be delivered by community justice authorities, local authorities, social work departments or even the SPS. The involvement of other agencies is required. I put on record our gratitude to faith groups, which contribute greatly on a voluntary basis.

The result of all that work is that reoffending has been falling—one-year reconviction rates are at their lowest in 11 years. That is a tribute to the hard work of the people who work with offenders every day and the measures that we have taken. We are looking to build on those achievements, which is why we have set up the commission on women offenders, which is chaired by Dame Elish Angiolini. The commission is due to report in the next few weeks. I look forward to receiving its recommendations and am hopeful that we can achieve cross-party support in implementing them.

In addition, we are entering a new phase of our programme to reduce reoffending. It will build on the work in phase 1, to ensure that good practice is embedded everywhere and that services that work to reduce reoffending are available across Scotland.

At the start of this Government’s first term in office, Henry McLeish’s Scottish Prisons Commission starkly set out the choice that the Government had to make. With the support of the Liberal Democrats, we chose to build a system of effective community justice. Reoffending has fallen, but we believe that it can fall further.

Let me be clear that the Government is as committed in our second term as we were in our first to reducing reoffending. I welcome the Liberal Democrats’ motion. I am happy to give an undertaking to look at the matters that Alison McInnes raised and to get back to her. I believe that, together, we can continue to make progress, and I look forward to continuing to receive cross-party support when we receive the Angiolini report.

I move amendment S4M-02337.1, to leave out from “; believes” to end and insert:

“, and welcomes that the Scottish Government will explore the potential of innovative approaches to funding, including the piloting of Social Impact Bonds and public social partnerships, to support preventative spend measures.”

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