Hansard

It has been highlighted already that the total economic and social cost of reoffending in Scotland is about £3 billion a year. According to the Audit Scotland report on reducing reoffending that was published in November last year, we spend over £400 million every year on criminal justice-related services, with some £99 million of that going to the community justice authorities every year for the past five or six years.

Some of the key challenges that we face in Scotland are that we have one of the highest prison population rates in Europe and that approximately 30 per cent of offenders are reconvicted after a year. There are, however, a number of positives and the trends are favourable: recorded crime is at a 37-year low, having fallen by 26 per cent since 2006; offences by young people have fallen; and the reoffending rates are at their lowest level for 10 years. The stakes are pretty high. The cost to society of offending is massive and the public investment in tackling it is substantial. That level of investment must return higher dividends to us, and the time is right for the Scottish Government to move the agenda forward.

I am a member of the Public Audit Committee, which has looked at the reoffending issue a few times. We did so in September 2011 and again last November. In the 2011 report “An overview of Scotland’s criminal justice system”, the Auditor General said that,

“Although CJAs were established in 2007, there are no agreed measures to assess their performance or impact”,

and he noted that funding arrangements were particularly complex in relation to the targeting of spend. As a result, CJAs tended to develop localised performance indicators, which made it difficult to establish a consistent picture on progress towards delivering on the national objective of reducing reoffending.

In last year’s follow-up report, “Reducing reoffending in Scotland”, Audit Scotland noted that none of the statutory partners who attend CJA board meetings is accountable to the CJA, which ultimately limits the effectiveness of the current model of delivery. Of course, that is not the fault of the CJAs themselves.

Audit Scotland made several recommendations, such as targeting spend at measures that are known to be effective, promoting collective responsibility among key players, co-ordinating work with the third sector and introducing clear lines of accountability, underpinned by effective monitoring of performance.

The recommendations are the natural next steps to take, seven or so years after CJAs were established, if we are to see the progress that I know we all want to see. I hope that the consultation on redesigning the community justice system will lead to our embracing the recommendations. Indeed, I am confident that all stakeholders will see the merit in moving in such a direction.

Over the past few years, my contact with the south-west Scotland CJA has been positive. We have an extremely dedicated and able convener in Councillor Peter McNamara, who is very committed to the task. I have been particularly impressed by the work that has been carried out under his stewardship.

When I was elected in 2007, one of my first visits was to Bowhouse prison in my constituency, to see for myself the work that is going on to come up with a strategy to reduce reoffending. I met prison officers, council officials, voluntary sector staff, the local community justice authority team and an ex-prisoner, who talked openly about his experience of prison and his journey away from offending. If one message stood out for me that day, it was this: one of the most important factors in reducing the risk of reoffending is the maintenance, as much as possible, of the links between the prisoner and their family. Prisoners who maintain close relationships with partners and children are less likely to develop associations with fellow criminals, which might lead them to reoffend.

Audit Scotland gave several examples of what works. More holistic, person-centred approaches, which involve throughcare and support services, all have encouraging results in the context of reducing reoffending. Such interventions do not come cheap, but we know that they work. They will help us to achieve our goal and reduce the massive cost to the public purse that I mentioned.

I commend the work that is carried out by my local CJA and its partners. Despite the deficiencies that Audit Scotland and the Parliament’s Public Audit Committee highlighted, the commitment that is given by everyone involved, even in the absence of clear governance arrangements, still gives me confidence that dedicated and capable people are at the heart of the criminal justice system in Scotland.

I make a plea to the cabinet secretary and the minister not to forget victims and families in the community justice system. It is not all about offenders; victims’ needs and expectations are just as important. Given the funding that we channel into offenders services, I hope that victims of crime will also feel that they are part of the new community justice process.

I have no doubt that whatever model the cabinet secretary adopts, he will have teams of excellent people, who will all be determined to work towards reducing reoffending in Scotland and who will be backed up by clear expectations and strong governance arrangements, to assist them in their task. That will be crucial.

16:29