Meeting of the Parliament 08 November 2023
I thank everyone who has taken part in today’s debate and shared their positive experiences of the cashback for communities programme’s 15 years of benefiting young people, families and communities. As I said at the start, the programme is unique to Scotland and demonstrates innovation, partnership and the importance of why we must invest in our young people.
We should acknowledge that most young people are not involved in antisocial behaviour or the justice system. However, we should also recognise that, sadly, some young people do not get the opportunities for the good start in life that we want them to have. The cashback programme helps to address their inequality by making high-value early interventions to provide a wide range of support activities and opportunities for children and young people, all of whom should be given the same chances to thrive.
I will address quite a few of the comments that have come up; there is quite a bit to cover. On Russell Findlay’s contribution, I think that every person across the chamber wants to see an increase in the crime funds that go into initiatives such as cashback. I do not think that anyone would disagree with that.
The 2002 act provides for criminal confiscation and civil recovery of the financial benefit that is derived from criminal activity, but it also contains the principal money laundering legislation for the UK, which is a reserved matter. The 2002 act is a complex mix of reserved and devolved matters, and we will not be able to resolve that today. The Scottish Government has responsibility for leading on legislative matters in relation to proceeds of crime, but this is a complex area of reserved and devolved competences. We will continue to monitor the need to strengthen the legislation to further detect, defer and disrupt organised crime, so that we can increase the criminal funds that go into initiatives such as cashback.
I go back to Russell Findlay’s question about serious organised crime. Disrupting organised crime and diverting individuals from organised crime remains a priority for the Scottish Government. A refreshed serious organised crime strategy was published in February 2022. Although the aims and objectives remain broadly the same, the options for change have focused on strengthening links between intelligence and tasking, making better use of data and supporting efforts to improve collaboration across all sectors, in order to combat the constantly evolving challenges that serious crime organisations pose. The serious organised crime task force progress report is due to be published later this month.
I move to Katy Clark’s contribution. Carol Mochan also brought up restorative justice. We remain committed to having restorative justice services available throughout Scotland. The needs and voices of harmed persons must be central to the process, and services must be safe, consistent, evidence led, trauma informed and of a high standard.
Obviously, the pandemic slowed progress. Initial development work identified the complexities, which we need to explore further. We are committed to taking the time to resolve the issues and develop a safe and robust system, and work is under way with partners across the justice system to do that.
Katy Clark asked about the criteria for phase 6. There were four main aims—diversion away from antisocial behaviour; provision for positive activity; support for wellbeing; and building confidence and skills. I know that there was an exceptionally high number of applicants, with 157 bids seeking more than £80 million in funding. Those bids were subject to a robust panel assessment process and, in the end, only 29 partner organisations were successful.
On evaluation, which I think that Claire Baker, Pauline McNeill and Katy Clark raised, as I said in my opening speech, the full evaluation of phase 5 is due this year, and it will be for members to look at that.