Hansard

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 Scotland where there is significant deprivation, and it does not look as though those parts of Scotland are necessarily getting the share of the moneys that they need to combat crime.

Members made many important points. Duncan McNeil asked how cashback could work better and what outcomes we could expect to see. Bruce Crawford made extremely important points about evaluation of the economic benefit of the programme and youth employment. What is more important in diverting young people away from crime than having a job? Malcolm Chisholm commented on the allocation to different activities and questioned whether enough was being put into early years and disadvantaged communities. We cannot just assume that, because someone is taking part in sport, they are not taking part in crime, and that, if they were not taking part in sport, they would be taking part in crime. It is not logical to turn the proposition on its head. We need to know whether we are reaching those people who need to be diverted from crime rather than providing opportunities for young people who would never commit a crime anyway.

There are many good projects. In my constituency, the cashback programme supports a range of community sporting and cultural activities. For example, as in other areas, it supports the Bank of Scotland midnight league, along with the SFA and others. Earlier this year, I went to watch the midnight league at the Hillview leisure centre in Kelloholm. Despite the fact that it was a horrendously wet and miserable night with horizontal rain, about 20 young men were engaged in playing football. Kelloholm is a former mining community and one of the 15 per cent most deprived communities as measured by the Scottish index of multiple deprivation. It is good to see money being provided to support communities.

Dumfries and Galloway has many reasons to be grateful to the cashback scheme. We used to be the only region in Scotland not to have a 3G pitch. Thanks to contributions from cashback, sportscotland and others, by 2012-13 it had three pitches—one in Annan, one in Dumfries and one in Stranraer—and we now have another one at Queen of the South, so we have a lot to be grateful to the programme for.

I will say a bit about an issue that worries not only me but a number of members, including Alison McInnes and John Pentland, and Annabel Goldie who mentioned it in summing up. It concerns the £6 million that has appeared in Police Scotland’s revenue budget, and which looks as if it could be substituting for some things that Police Scotland already did.

The revenue budget proposal that was presented to the SPA board at its meeting in Inverness in March stated at paragraph 2.9:

“in addition to Grant in Aid funding £1,016m, further funding of £6m has been anticipated in 2014/15 representing the expected resources from the Proceeds of Crime Act, which the Scottish Government will allocate to the Authority. This funding is to be applied to support Police Scotland’s payments to third parties in our communities”.

That funding seems to be new, as I cannot see it in the budget document—which was in a different format—that was approved in the previous year.

Furthermore, Assistant Chief Constable Ruaraidh Nicolson was pretty sure that the funding was needed to supplement Police Scotland’s budget. He told Holyrood Magazine in March that Police Scotland wanted the Government to

“fund these projects that Police Scotland is no longer able to fund—community projects—through the proceeds of crime”.

He went on to say:

“There’s no question that community projects are under threat ... some will have to stop. It could be anything all the way from CCTV to partnership working to some of the third-sector work that is supported by the police service”.

A subsequent paper that was submitted to the SPA board meeting in Airdrie in April, which was for noting only and not for approval, provided detail on how the proceeds of crime money is to be used and allocated within Police Scotland. The paper stated that the Government had written to the SPA to confirm that

“estimates of anticipated receipts from the proceeds of crime can be contained with budget proposals for 2014/15 and 2015/16.”

That money was to be applied to

“support Police Scotland’s payments to third parties and in our communities”,

and a bidding process would be required.

The paper goes on to give examples of initiatives, organisations and community organisations that have previously been supported by Police Scotland, such as the National Crime Agency, CCTV, Crimestoppers Trust, a community fund, the Police Scotland youth volunteer scheme and VIPER, the video identification parades electronic recording system.

I want to know whether the £6 million from cashback is now substituting this year for funding that was previously supplied by Police Scotland’s budget. If it is, it represents part of Police Scotland’s savings package.

I have not been able to find out what the estimate for receipts from POCA to Police Scotland is for next year, but there have been reports in the media that a total of £16 million will be transferred over the two years.

Bearing in mind that the total sum that has been received from the proceeds of crime in Scotland was £12 million in 2012-13 and £8 million in 2013-14, it would appear that, unless there are going to be many more seizures this year, the Scottish Government has agreed that 75 per cent of the sum that was seized last year will go directly into the coffers of Police Scotland.

I am confused now. Does the £24 million over three years for cashback that the cabinet secretary announced include that funding? Is the funding in the Police Scotland budget now being considered as part of the cashback scheme?

Given the content of the two papers that went to the SPA board in March and April, I was puzzled by the written answer that the cabinet secretary gave to my colleague Graeme Pearson in May this year. It stated:

“The Scottish Government has not currently allocated any money seized under the proceeds of crime legislation to support the budget of Police Scotland or the Scottish Police Authority in 2014-15 or 2015-16.”

and that

“The Task Force agreed that, should additional proceeds of crime funding become available, it will advise Scottish Ministers on the options of how to allocate the money”.—[Official Report, Written Answers, 22 May 2014; S4W-21076.]

Graeme Pearson’s question was answered after the Scottish Government had, apparently, written to the SPA to confirm that the receipts could be added to the revenue budget. Some clarification is required, and I would be grateful if the cabinet secretary could put that on record so that we know what is going on, because the situation seems to be very unclear.

We all agree that the cashback scheme is a success, but I need to know the answer to my question. Is £6 million being taken out of cashback and given to the police to do things that they already did using their own revenue budget?