Hansard

Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of Scotland’s children and young people is a key priority for us all. As Cabinet Secretary for Justice, I am committed to a preventative approach to offending that involves children and young people. Our “Justice Vision and Priorities” underlines our commitment to being led by the best available evidence. Our whole-system approach to offending by young people is proven to work, as it has driven down offending referrals by over 80 per cent in the past decade. It involves emphasising timely and appropriate action to address crime and its causes, through early and effective intervention, diversion and specialist support. That complements a broader focus on prevention, mainly through universal children’s services as part of getting it right for every child.

However, we will always need more specialist support and intervention for some young people. In 2016, I commissioned research to analyse the increase in the “Other sexual crimes” category of police-recorded crime. That category had grown to become the largest category of sexual offences: 40 per cent of recorded sexual crime is made up of other sexual crimes. It is the largest individual category ahead of sexual assault.

There were suggestions that that growth was driven in part by an increase in cyber-related offences. The research report “Recorded Crime in Scotland: Other Sexual Crimes, 2013-14 and 2016-17” highlighted that offences that fall into the other sexual crimes category are often committed online. It is important to note that online crimes are much more likely to have younger victims, who are mainly female, and younger perpetrators, who are mainly male.

According to the research report, it is estimated that around half the increase in all recorded sexual crime is due to the growth in other sexual crimes that are committed online, which include behaviour such as communicating indecently or causing others to view sexual activity or images. Where those crimes are committed online, there is a disproportionate impact on our young people. Three quarters of victims in 2016-17 were under 16, with an average age of 14. In a quarter of cases, both the victim and the perpetrator were under 16. The research highlighted a significant gendered element across all other sexual crimes. In 2016-17, four in every five victims of other sexual crimes were female, and the vast majority of perpetrators were male.

Alongside that research, the Solicitor General for Scotland and I announced on 26 September our intention to establish an expert group on preventing sexual offending involving children and young people. Earlier in September, Alison Di Rollo had hosted an education summit, at which it was noted that cases reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service that involved a sexual offence committed against a child by another child rose by 34 per cent in the five years to 2015-16.

As the Solicitor General said, those disturbing and depressing cases can give rise to profoundly difficult, as well as important, decisions for prosecutors, in relation to the criminal law and the public interest. They have consequences for the accused, for the complainer, for the witnesses, for their families and for our society as a whole. They have consequences whether or not criminal proceedings are taken.

In recent years, we have come to understand more about the relationship between trauma and adverse childhood experiences and outcomes such as offending and imprisonment. There is a growing body of evidence that one of the most significant factors in predicting whether a child will commit criminal offences in the future is contact with the criminal justice system at an early age.

Prevention is undoubtedly preferable to prosecution, albeit that we recognise that for the most serious cases prosecution will be required. We need to understand better why young people—predominantly males—are motivated to behave in such a way. We need to understand better how we can prevent sexual offending, in order to minimise risk of harm and the number of victims.

Considerable effort is being exerted across Government, including national campaigns around child sexual exploitation, our national action plan on internet safety, and our “Equally Safe” strategy. However, we need a fresh impetus, armed with the very best evidence and the most useful tools, to prevent this type of offending.

The expert group, with its focus on prevention, education, health and wellbeing and child protection, and with a significant justice interface, will identify the further steps that are needed if we are to better tackle and ultimately prevent such offending.

I am pleased to announce that Catherine Dyer will chair the expert group. Catherine’s background as Crown Agent and chief executive of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, and her role in chairing the independent child protection system review, mean that she is uniquely placed to lead on this vital work. She will ensure that the expert group examines the necessary issues with independence, rigour and a fresh eye. I know that she is very mindful of existing policies and programmes and of the interactions between existing systems.

The expert group will bring together professional and academic expertise from justice, education, child protection, health and the third sector. Its work will identify fresh actions to better prevent sexual crime involving children and young people and to mitigate the harm that it causes. The group will consider the implications of the recent research and other evidence and relevant data. It will conduct an assessment of existing policies, interventions and programmes, and it will look at the impact of wider societal and technological changes. It will draw on lessons from preventative work on violence reduction and will link strategically with other developments across justice, education and health.

I should point to the good work that is already being done by the Government and partners that contributes to this agenda. For example, we are working closely with the children’s sector to implement the actions that are outlined in the national action plans on child sexual exploitation and internet safety. Health and wellbeing is at the heart of children’s learning, and schools are supported through guidance on relationships, sexual health and parenthood education. That is an important part of the school curriculum in Scotland.

However, we know that, in the modern world, we need to ensure that children and young people are provided with learning that fits the ever-evolving digital world. As most members will be aware, the Government has commissioned a review of personal and social education as part of its mental health strategy. It is looking at the delivery across our primary and secondary schools of a wide area of subjects, including relationships, sexual health and parenthood. The review commenced earlier this year and it is expected to provide recommendations to ministers by the end of 2018.

“Equally Safe”, the Scottish Government’s strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls, has promoted a concerted effort by relevant sectors to deliver a holistic response to tackling violence against women and girls. It puts a decisive focus on prevention while ensuring that we have effective services for survivors and that perpetrators receive the strongest possible response.

Over the next few weeks, my Cabinet colleague Angela Constance will publish a delivery plan to further focus our efforts. As well as building on our strong progress on strengthening legislation and building the capacity of services, it will recognise and focus action on the fact that preventing violence requires the underlying attitudes and inequalities that create the societal conditions for that violence to be eradicated.

We are investing in programmes that promote internet safety and explore the online behaviour of young people, including Police Scotland’s choices for life peer mentoring programme, the mentors in violence prevention programme, Stop It Now! Scotland, and Sacro’s challenging harmful online images and child exploitation programme. In addition, funding from the violence against women and girls justice budget is supporting Rape Crisis Scotland to deliver a sexual violence prevention programme across a number of local authorities in Scotland. That work is vital in helping to deepen young people’s understanding of consent and healthy relationships.

The remit of the expert group extends to all sexual offending and harm involving children and young people, including situations in which a child is the victim or the perpetrator—sometimes, they might even be both—and there will be a particular focus on cyber-enabled offending. The group’s remit will not focus on adult perpetrators of sexual violence. The criminal justice system and the multi-agency public protection arrangements will remain at the core of protecting the public from sexual offences where the perpetrator is an adult.

The expert group will map and raise the visibility of existing approaches, identify gaps and explore best practice, including insight from other countries.

Young people must be involved in that work in a meaningful way. We will invite the Scottish Youth Parliament and Young Scot to be part of the expert group, and YouthLink Scotland can provide insight from a young person’s perspective, drawing on the success that we have had with the no knives, better lives model.

Given the research outcomes, a gendered analysis will be a significant component. When it comes to cyber-enabled sexual offences, it is clear that young women and girls are predominantly the victims, whereas young men and boys are predominantly the perpetrators.

The expert group will be focused and time limited. It is expected to conclude its work by the end of March 2019.

A preliminary meeting with a number of third sector organisations to scope membership took place on 30 October. I thank Rape Crisis Scotland, Stop It Now! Scotland, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Barnardo’s Scotland and others, including the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and Police Scotland, for supporting those discussions.

We want to draw on all available expertise. That will include the Coalition of Care Providers in Scotland, Rape Crisis Scotland, Stop it now! Scotland, child protection committees Scotland, the national child protection leadership group, Education Scotland, the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration and a nomination from the chief medical officer for Scotland. Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service will also be part of the group. We will invite the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland to nominate a member. We will also draw on academic expertise from the specific areas that are being considered. The chair will have flexibility to invite others such as Zero Tolerance and child exploitation and online protection command to augment the work of the group.

I hope that members will welcome the direction being taken through the expert group and support the focus on a preventative approach to reducing the number of children who are involved in sexual offending as victims and as perpetrators