Meeting of the Parliament 12 June 2014
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. That is what we should be able to do after seven years. We are talking about headline figures. The evaluation report says that organisations had to be reminded how to produce reports and corporate governance. It is all there in the summary report that was provided for us for the debate.
Parliament deserves the information. We should demand to know about the chaos that Inspiring Scotland found when it looked into this. The list of recommendations to address all of the issues, provided by the Government, is before us today. The evaluation states that—seven years on—cashback partners
“are still at an early stage of measuring the outcomes achieved through their work.”
Surely we should already have a comprehensive picture of the impact on communities, but it is better late than never.
I am glad that we are moving forward and that appropriate accountability measures and monitoring practices are being put in place. However, I do not believe, as it is suggested in the evaluation, that we should draw a line under 2008 to 2012 and just look forward. We need all the information about what went on in 2008 to 2012 so that we can understand how we can do it better in future.
In all this, it is important that we do not lose sight of the programme’s overall objective, which is to put the proceeds of crime back into the communities that are hardest hit by crime. We should not be spreading the jam thinly. As Graeme Pearson said, we agree on that. Cathy Jamieson, the minister who oversaw development of the early policy, said:
“Our proceeds of crime legislation is really beginning to bite where it hurts criminals most—in their pockets. We have pledged that assets that are recovered from the proceeds of crime in Scotland will be used by the Executive to repair some of the damage that has been done to the communities that have suffered most as a result of drug dealing and other serious crimes.”—[Official Report, 27 October 2004; c 11146.]
If we are going to be true to that, we need to change the way in which we address the issue in future.
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