Meeting of the Parliament 11 February 2016
The third sector plays an invaluable role in delivering vital services in relation to community justice, not only for victims and their families but for those who are convicted of an offence and their families, so I very much welcome the comment that the minister made about the sector at stage 2. He said:
“I fully recognise that the third sector is vital to the successful planning and delivery of effective and efficient services for individuals, and I am grateful for the positive contribution that the sector makes to community justice at local and national levels.”—[Official Report, Justice Committee, 26 January 2016; c 2.]
Amendment 30 seeks to put in place a reporting mechanism whereby community justice partners must reflect and report on the actions that they have taken to facilitate the participation of the third sector and state which third sector bodies were involved in the development and preparation of the community justice outcomes improvement plan, in line with section 18(3). Amendment 31 seeks to ensure that, when a local improvement plan is revised, the same statement must be produced for that revised plan.
The intention of the amendments is to ensure that the good intentions in section 18(3) on participation of the third sector in community justice outcomes improvement planning are not lost in practice. Too often, the role of the third sector can be confined to service delivery but, more often than not, the sector has the skills, expertise and knowledge to contribute to the strategic development and planning of services as well as front-line delivery.
The amendments will ensure that community justice partners provide a statement to community justice Scotland on how they have fulfilled their duties to facilitate the participation of the third sector under section 18(3). If the statement indicates a deficiency in the participation of the third sector, I hope that community justice Scotland will use its powers under section 25 to rectify that. I believe that the amendments will strengthen the bill, introduce a necessary level of accountability for community justice partners, and ensure that the crucial role of the third sector in community justice planning is upheld.
I thank the Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs and his officials for their constructive dialogue about the amendments, and I urge all members to support them.
I move amendment 30.