Hansard

The Cabinet Secretary for Justice (Kenny MacAskill) SNP

I welcome this debate as an opportunity to celebrate the enormous impact of this Government’s unique approach in taking money seized through the Proceeds of ...

Kenny MacAskill SNP

I do not have those specific figures to hand, but I will do my best to answer that question in my summing-up speech. However, as I said at the outset, and as...

Graeme Pearson (South Scotland) (Lab) Lab

Scottish Labour supports the message that the profits that are created by criminal conduct across Scotland should be seized and returned to the communities f...

Margaret Mitchell (Central Scotland) (Con) Con

The motion states that, since 2008, £74 million of funds has gone to the cashback for communities programme, which has provided funding for 1.5 million posit...

Christine Grahame (Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale) (SNP) SNP

Cashback, whereby money is taken from people who commit crime and put back into underprivileged communities, is imaginative and, as my old history teacher us...

Duncan McNeil (Greenock and Inverclyde) (Lab) Lab

I, too, am pleased to take part in today’s debate. Like others, I have expressed an interest in the cashback for communities programme for some time, through...

Duncan McNeil Lab

We are saying that an evaluation should be able to show, right down to the postcodes, the communities and individuals who have benefited from the scheme. Tha...

Bruce Crawford SNP

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....

Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn) (Lab) Lab

This is a very worthwhile debate, and I am glad that the minister has brought it to the chamber. I welcome the evaluation of the cashback for communities pr...

Alison McInnes (North East Scotland) (LD) LD

I, too, welcome the opportunity to take part in this debate and to highlight how the cashback for communities scheme is improving the lives of thousands of y...

Annabelle Ewing (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP) SNP

I, too, am pleased to have been called to speak in this debate on the excellent cashback for communities programme. As we have heard, it was introduced by th...

George Adam SNP

I am talking about the many positive differences that the community’s access to that funding is making. That facility was not available to that football club...

Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh Northern and Leith) (Lab) Lab

There is a difficult balancing act when speaking in the debate, because I am sure that most of us could speak for a lot more than six minutes about initiativ...

Stuart McMillan (West Scotland) (SNP) SNP

I am delighted to speak in the debate. I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, as I will highlight the work of Ocean Youth Trust S...

Stuart McMillan SNP

I hear what the member says, but that was the impression that I got earlier. The member is right that the West of Scotland is my constituency. I welcome the ...

John Pentland (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab

Cashback for communities has the potential to help our most deprived areas, which are often blighted by crime. In Motherwell and Wishaw, as in other areas o...

Colin Keir (Edinburgh Western) (SNP) SNP

There is something deeply satisfying about cash coming from the criminal fraternity and heading back into society. We have all been speaking about that, and ...

Annabel Goldie (West Scotland) (Con) Con

The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 was an exciting innovation in our justice system—a very good UK act, as Christine Grahame so appositely pointed out. For a ju...

Elaine Murray (Dumfriesshire) (Lab) Lab

Christine Grahame made a comment about a turf war. There was no intention on our part to suggest that there was a turf war. A progression took place between ...

Elaine Murray Lab

As someone who represents a rural area, I accept that costs in rural areas are higher, but we are talking about a five-year period. There are parts of Scotla...

Kenny MacAskill SNP

I will deal with some of the remarks that members have made, not only in the winding-up speeches but throughout the debate. There has been a general welcome ...

Duncan McNeil (Greenock and Inverclyde) (Lab) Lab

How many additional young people from poorer areas are now participating in sport, compared with the situation before the cashback scheme?

John Pentland (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab) Lab

The cabinet secretary said that some of the cashback money was being used to enable volunteers to support the uniformed officers. What kind of support are th...

Maureen Watt (Aberdeen South and North Kincardine) (SNP) SNP

Does Graeme Pearson accept that a lot of the activities that the cashback scheme funds are diversionary activities that take place in the evening and twiligh...

Kenny MacAskill SNP

I can give the member an assurance that the situation that he describes will not be the outcome. I am grateful for his concern, though, because on 25 January...

The Deputy Presiding Officer Lab

We move to the open debate. Speeches of six minutes, please. I have a little—but not much—time in hand for interventions at this stage. 15:03

Christine Grahame SNP

I hope that the member was listening to my speech. If he was, he would have heard me give a fairly detailed breakdown of how the funding for the 3G pitch in ...

Graeme Pearson Lab

Will the member take an intervention?

The Deputy Presiding Officer Lab

I must ask you to draw to a close.

James Dornan SNP

All I can say is that the figures are here in front of us. More than £5 million was sent to Glasgow City Council from cashback. Interruption.