Meeting of the Parliament 12 June 2014
An activity is something that we undertake, such as a sport—something that, sadly, Duncan McNeil and I have probably been missing more recently in our lives. An activity is something that I would encourage him to do, as well as taking more of those anti-crabbit pills as we go through life. [Laughter.]
There can be no doubt that investing in Scotland’s young people through the cashback programme helps to make our communities safer and healthier—safer because young people are encouraged to take part in constructive activity that makes it much less likely that they will drift into trouble, antisocial behaviour or, in the worst case, committing crimes; and healthier, as young people are involved, for instance, in positive and exciting sporting activity that might be novel to them and keep their interest.
In saying all of that, I know that it is only a small minority of young people who become involved in antisocial behaviour or, worse still, drift into criminality. Through initiatives such as cashback for communities, we can ensure that opportunities exist for young people that provide a positive alternative to that drift.
I hope that, over the longer term, it will be possible to estimate the economic benefit to young people and to society of such interventions. Given that jobs and economic growth are the stated priorities of the Scottish Government and that youth employment is a critical part of that, perhaps the cabinet secretary could tell us in his summing up what more can be done to bring a sharper focus to the programme in that regard.
In 2008, I also remember feeling excited about what the unique Scottish approach that was proposed could do to help build the confidence of the communities that I represent and to make them more resilient. As the cabinet secretary reminded us, since the early days of cashback for communities the Scottish Government has delivered on its commitment to expand the programme by increasing investment in it to more than £74 million.
The cabinet secretary mentioned the role that is played by the police, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the Scottish Court Service, of which I was once a part. He was correct to say that they do outstanding work in this area, and I am glad—although perhaps Mr Pearson is not—that they have had an additional £3 million put into the recovery process to enhance capacity. That enhanced capacity will enable those organisations to target criminals even more ruthlessly.