Hansard

We know that the economic and social cost of offending and reoffending is immense, and we pour so many resources into picking up the pieces. Lives are ruined, communities are blighted and potential is lost.

Considering those who are in our criminal justice system, we can see that we have failed to get to grips with the underlying problems—mental health problems, a history of abuse, addiction, poverty, exclusion from education and being in the care system. We know what lies behind the chaotic lives that lead to prison. Worse, we also know what makes a difference. Reoffending rates remain stubbornly high, however.

Liberal Democrats want safer communities, people brought to justice when they offend and robust community justice schemes. We also believe that everyone deserves a chance to get back on track. A robust but compassionate targeted community justice system that is flexible enough to respond to individual needs will benefit everyone in Scotland.

I agree with the cabinet secretary that the status quo is clearly not an option. The Angiolini and Audit Scotland reports both highlighted serious shortcomings in the operation of the community justice system, and the Justice Committee has seen clear evidence of failings in the system. The Angiolini report had some frank words to say about the lack of leadership up until now. For sure, it will take strong and sustained leadership, both nationally and locally, to make a difference.

Audit Scotland found a mismatch between the services that are provided and what we know works in tackling reoffending. It found that access to and availability of services varies significantly throughout Scotland. While CJAs have been successful in bringing people together, Audit Scotland reported that the way in which they were set up and the inflexible funding arrangements that are in place have limited their effectiveness. Audit Scotland concludes that funding for community justice services is particularly inflexible and does not encourage reductions in reoffending. Only a small amount of funding is currently available for local discretion, and the funding is based largely on historical activity.

The CJAs report to ministers and have regional budgets to dispense to local authorities, but they also have little discretion and a lack of clear governance arrangements. I acknowledge that good work is going on, but I cannot legitimately argue that what we have at the moment is the right model.

I agree with the Labour Party that although it is good to have an exploratory debate on this complex issue, it would be useful if we could come back to it once we have all had the opportunity to review the consultation responses.

Faced with the fact that a number of the other agencies involved—the Scottish Court Service, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Scottish Prison Service and now the police—operate nationally, some might be tempted to say that we should also have a national community justice organisation. I am instinctively uncomfortable about that option. Like it or not, a complex web of societal interactions need to come together to prevent reoffending and ensure that community justice disposals provide both punishment and alternatives. A national agency—possibly remote and bureaucratic—is unlikely to be able to maximise those connections.

Audit Scotland made much in its report of the number of people round the table at CJA meetings. In fact, we need everyone working together. The real problem at the moment is that no one has the proper clout to bring about the change that is needed.

Criminal justice social work is rightly part of the local government family. We need to develop and build on those close links between criminal justice services, social work, education, drug and alcohol services, disability services and of course the third sector. Those connections have meant that there has been progress on tackling the root causes of crime. I am concerned that removing criminal justice social work from the local authority family would be expensive and disruptive and might lead to the loss of integration with other local services.

On the other hand, disbanding the CJAs completely and returning responsibility to our 32 separate local authorities will not address the current problems of poor integration and postcode-based justice services. What we need is a structure that facilitates a tailored, community-based response, while ensuring that a much more rigorous approach is taken to the standard of service that we should expect to see throughout Scotland. I am probably with Christine Grahame on this issue. None of the three options outlined in the consultation document seems quite to fit the bill. I suspect that the answer lies in a hybrid form of them.

It seems at this stage that the best way forward would be to reform the CJAs by ensuring that they have the right—indeed the responsibility—to plan, co-ordinate and monitor services in their area. Clearer governance, proper control of budgets and building on what is good in CJAs is likely to bring about change most effectively. However, there also needs to be a national strategy—one that sets standards and ensures equality of access to services, especially in relation to specific groups such as sex offenders, young offenders and women prisoners. Leadership needs to be provided nationally to champion all the change that needs to come about. It might be that a federation of the CJAs working in tandem with the Government could drive that forward; if necessary, we could have joint commissioning of regional specialisms at the same time. However, if we are to reduce reoffending drastically, at the heart of it all has to be local, community-based solutions.

Over and over again at the Justice Committee we have heard how patchy throughcare is for short-term prisoners because there is no statutory provision for them, yet we know that those prisoners are most at risk of reoffending. I genuinely urge the cabinet secretary to use this opportunity, this year, to extend statutory throughcare to all prisoners. He would have our support for that.

Recent research by the Prison Reform Trust concluded that it is important for offenders to take responsibility for their own resettlement. Right now, there is no dialogue with or involvement of offenders or ex-offenders. We want that to change.

Although the Liberal Democrats are open to further discussion on the best way forward, we are clear that there must be improvements in how community justice services are funded, how performance is measured and how services for offenders are planned, designed and managed.

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