Meeting of the Parliament 19 November 2015
I repeat the words of the convener, who said that the topic may be as dry as dust. I do not think that it is; it is about people and it is important. We have had some good contributions already—interesting contributions about how we can move forward and see how we can review the legislation. The main point about the bill is that it is enabling legislation. I am delighted to participate in the debate as a member of the Justice Committee. I thank the clerks and the team who helped the committee to prepare its report at stage 1.
The Community Justice (Scotland) Bill is introducing not only a new model for community justice, but, more important, an enabling model. The detail of how the arrangements will work in practice will be set out in a national strategy—a vital part of the bill, as the minister said—the national performance framework, in guidance and in the post-legislation period, after the bill is passed.
As the convener stated, the evidence that we received did not show any great enthusiasm for the bill. I put that down to the fact that many participants were looking to respond to prescriptive legislation and what we have is enabling legislation, which is the opposite. Some people must have expected to come and oppose the legislation as being top-down. Instead the discussions were very much around what every participant would like to see in how community justice could be better delivered and monitored. They all agreed that legislative reform is needed—apart from some conveners, of course. We made recommendations following the work that we did and the evidence that we received and heard.
I would like first to say where we are, because that is important after what Margaret Mitchell said. I will clarify the point that I tried to make. Community justice authorities were set up in 2006 under the Management of Offenders etc (Scotland) Act 2005 to reduce reoffending—that was the main point. For example, in the region that I represent, the northern community justice authority, which covers a large geographical area—Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray—is clear about the purpose for which it was set up. It says online:
“Community Justice Authorities (CJAs) were set up across Scotland to make our communities safer by reducing re-offending and improving the management of offenders.”
The northern CJA goes on to make its role clear, saying:
“Our role is to coordinate the delivery of offender services by councils, voluntary organisations and other partners and to ensure close cooperation between community and prison services to aid the rehabilitation of offenders.”
That is all very clear.