The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

SCOTLAND'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE PLAN

CHAPTER ONE: PROTECTING COMMUNITIES AND PREVENTING CRIME

Community Wardens and Community
Constable in Clackmannanshire

1.1 Crime happens in our communities - in our streets, shops and homes. Wherever it happens, it can have a devastating impact on victims. At the same time, the fear of crime casts a shadow over many people who are not victims and unlikely to be so. So we are taking action across the cities, towns, villages and rural areas of Scotland, to reduce and deter crime, to protect people and to make people feel safer.

1.2 We recognise the key importance of local involvement in tackling the problems which our communities face. The public has the right to expect to feel safe at home, in the streets and at work whatever their age, race, religion or gender. Fear of crime is influenced by a range of factors. Because of what we see on TV or read in the press, it is all too easy to form a distorted picture of crime in our own area and community.

1.3 Members of local communities have much to contribute in tackling offending behaviour and have a vital role in developing and supporting local initiatives which strengthen the community, help offenders make amends for their actions and offer opportunities and support to prevent reoffending. Greater community involvement and understanding of crime and crime prevention measures also reduces fear of crime.

1.4 We are also offering opportunities to the vulnerable and disenfranchised who might otherwise turn to crime. Links between crime and deprivation are well known. Inner city areas and poor council housing estates suffer from the highest crime rates. It is estimated that half of those received into prison lack functional literacy, with one in five having serious reading difficulties. 55-65% lack functional numeracy with young offenders being at the higher end of the bracket. ⁶

1.5 The figures tell a clear story. Two thirds of prisoners arrive in prison from unemployment and three quarters leave with no job to go to. ⁷ 70% of those who offend will have been in care, and six out of ten children who leave care have no qualifications and are not in employment, education or training. In addition the links between alcohol and violence are also well known as is the contribution that the misuse of alcohol can make to antisocial behaviour.

What we have done

1.6 More Police Officers On Our Streets

• We have significantly increased funding to the police service. Between 1999-2000 and 2004-05, for example, spending on the police has increased by 31% - over twice the rate of inflation. It will rise by a further 17% in the period to 2007-08. Those increases have led to record numbers of police officers and police support staff and supported a range of new technology. Between September 2001 and September 2004, police officer numbers in whole time equivalent terms rose by over 700 to 15,741. The transfer of prisoner escorting and court custody work to the private sector which is due to be completed early in 2005 should release up to 300 of these officers to be re-deployed to other front line duties, making the real increase in officer deployments over the period close to 1,000.
• Ongoing reviews by police forces in 2003-04 led to a range of improvements in services and identified over 13m to be redeployed to meet emerging pressures.
• Recorded crimes in 2003 were 5% down on 2002 to the lowest level in almost a quarter of a century while police clear up rates, at 47%, were at the highest level since the Second World War.

Total Crimes

• We have provided new technology to prevent and tackle crime including:
  • funding a new Scottish high tech crime unit within the SDEA to support police work in internet and other computer based crime;
  • around an extra 2,000 public space CCTV cameras; and
  • forensic and technological equipment to aid prevention, detection and conviction.

1.7 Stronger protection

• The Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Act⁸received Royal Assent in July 2004. Rollout of its provisions began in October 2004. The Act is a central pillar of our work to protect communities. Among other measures, the Act introduced Antisocial Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) for under 16s and gave new powers to the police to disperse groups in identified trouble-spots.

• We have ensured that Scottish Courts take account of religious prejudice and racial hatred as aggravating factors in crimes and also state any extra element of the sentence which they are giving for the aggravation.

1.8 Involving the community

• We have established a Safe City Centres Initiative, managed by the Scottish Business Crime Centre (SBCC). There are initiatives in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Inverness and Perth.
• We have maintained sponsorship of the Safer Scotland national crime prevention campaign which has addressed street violence, drugs, transport, traffic and acquisitive crime.
• We are supporting the voluntary sector and working with groups which have traditionally been reluctant to report crime.
• We have worked with all 32 local authorities in Scotland to form Community Safety Partnerships and have provided significant support for the Community Safety Partnership Award Programme for local authority led partnerships to identify and address local community priorities, including CCTV. 12m has been invested so far.
• We are working through the establishment of Community Warden schemes across Scotland. We have invested more than 20m to support this development.
• We have made it possible to improve security at 46 sites of ethnic community worship through making available 1m funding.

What we are doing

1.9 Improving protection

• We are strengthening the law providing protection to children from predatory sex offenders who seek to use the internet or other means to contact children to facilitate the commission of sexual offences.
• We are strengthening the law protecting girls from the practice of female genital mutilation. We propose to increase the penalty for this offence and to make it unlawful for a girl to be taken abroad for this procedure to be carried out.
• We are introducing, under the Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003, a list of individuals disqualified from working with children against which all those wanting to take up positions where they will be responsible for children must be checked. It will be an offence to appoint any person on that list to a childcare position.
• We are combating alcohol-related crime and disorder through the use of fixed penalty notices to over 16s for a range of offences associated with irresponsible use of alcohol; new police powers to disperse groups and close or prohibit access to premises which have been the centre of persistent or serious nuisance or disorder, including licensed premises or drinking dens; and fixed penalty fines for low level drunk and disorderly behaviour.
• We are improving enforcement and monitoring of licensing laws and are looking at increasing the potential for local communities to be involved in local decision making.
• Workers who serve the public are increasingly at risk of hostility, aggression and even violence from their customers. That is why a package of measures is being developed jointly with the STUC to protect all workers who serve the public from physical and verbal violence, and reinforce the message that attacks on those workers are totally unacceptable. It will include training in preventing and handling abuse, a model reporting system, sharing best practice, and ways of helping employers meet their legal obligations to reduce risk of abuse towards staff.
• New powers in the Emergency Workers Bill will penalise anyone who assaults, obstructs or hinders an emergency worker, or anyone assisting them, in responding to an emergency.
• We are supporting the Partnership Agreement commitment on CCTV with an additional 1m in 2005-06.

1.10 Improving community involvement

• We are supporting youth diversion through small local community based projects such as building and improving community facilities, buying sports equipment, purchasing/ updating computer equipment for youth cafes etc. by committing 10m to the Local Action Fund over 2004-05 and 2005-06, to be administered by Community Safety Partnerships.
• We are supporting the establishment of youth CAFEs (Community Alcohol Free Environments) and other alcohol free activities for young people. Youth CAFEs are in place in all but one alcohol action team area across Scotland.
• We are continuing to work on national media campaigns to tackle binge drinking amongst young people and will work with media and commercial partners to promote responsible drinking messages and a more balanced portrayal of alcohol and drugs problems.
• We have asked the Expert Group on Prostitution to examine the range of issues surrounding prostitution in Scotland. The remit of the Group is to review the legal, policing, health and social justice issues surrounding prostitution in Scotland and to consider options for the future.
• We will publish a Plan for Action on Alcohol problems to tackle the causes and consequences of harmful binge drinking within Scottish society.

What we will do

1.11 Antisocial behaviour legislation and the work we have done to improve community involvement are significant steps to protect our communities and fight crime. We will continue to tackle the causes of crime, particularly by our work to improve our most deprived communities. But our programme of work does not end there.

1.12 From April 2005 the 32 local Community Safety Partnerships will apply the Community Safety Award Programme Funding to tackle up to three problems which are of greatest concern to their local communities. To support that shift to solving local problems we will:

• Appoint a National Community Safety Development Manager to support partnerships across Scotland;
• Deliver a three year national problem-solving training and support programme, working with operational managers helping them tackle real problems where they are taking place;
• Invest in the Scottish Community Safety Network to help it provide best practice for Scotland's Community Safety Partnerships;
• Transform the Scottish Forum on Community Safety to an Annual National Community Safety Convention (starting in June 2005) promoting and encouraging best practice;
• Invest in partners, particularly the Scottish Fire Service, to help build its capacity to contribute fully to local partnership working; and
• Fund two initiatives to tackle persistent local community safety problems with national significance.

1.13 We will bring improvements to Scotland's most deprived areas and help individuals and families escape poverty through a new Community Regeneration Fund (104m/106m/ 108m for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08). We will use this money to target the most deprived 15% of areas identified in the Scottish Index of Deprivation.

1.14 The front line of our battle against crime is the police service. We will continue to invest in our police service to ensure that they maintain their strength and have the necessary powers to work effectively. We are committed to legislation on kerb-crawling, subject to the recommendations of the Expert Group on Prostitution; to a review of the law and enforcement of knife crime; and responding to the recommendations of the Hate Crime Working Group.

More effective policing

1.15 Scotland has a first class police service. We have invested in record numbers of police officers and a range of police technology, which has led to record clear up rates and record drug seizures, but giving the police the tools to do the job also involves keeping the legislation fit for purpose.

• Early next year we will consult on proposals for new legislation to increase the effectiveness of the police service. This will include:
  • Establishing a new organisation for the Common Police Services, to allow maximum co-ordination and efficiency in the provision of vital police services such as criminal records, information technology, police training, forensic science and back office functions;
  • Providing a new independent statutory footing for the SDEA; and
  • Establishing a new Independent Police Complaints Body.

Tougher on serious organised crime

1.16 The threat from serious organised crime is growing and evolving. We must continually look for new ways to meet this challenge.

• We will continue to expand the SDEA and we are working with the UK Government to ensure the best fit between it and the proposed new Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). While that agency will have a UK-wide remit, the SDEA will continue to exercise its current functions.
• We will further strengthen the way Scotland deals with the threat of serious and organised crime, through a major project to bring together some of the key law enforcement agencies, including the SDEA, in a new law enforcement campus. The creation of this proposed centre of excellence, which will take some years to bring to fruition, will send out a strong message to international criminal networks that Scotland is not a soft target and will respond quickly and robustly to protect our streets and communities from the threat posed by serious and organised crime.
• We will regulate the private security industry in Scotland through UK legislation to extend the remit of the Security Industry Authority.

1.17 Since criminal and civil powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 were introduced at the beginning of 2003, a total of 2.96m has been recovered in Scotland by the Financial Crime Unit and the Civil Recovery Unit working with colleagues at the SDEA, Scottish Police Forces and HM Customs and Excise. Assets recovered from the proceeds of crime will be actively re-invested to repair some of the damage done to communities which have suffered as a consequence of drug dealing and other serious crimes. Our first investment is in a national campaign in partnership with Crimestoppers to Shop-A-Dealer, encouraging communities to become actively involved in helping repair and strengthen themselves.

Tougher on sex crime

1.18 Sex offences are quite properly an area of high public concern. We are working to ensure that the legal framework keeps pace with changes in technology. We aim to ensure that the law is robust and able to catch those who commit, plan to commit, or encourage others to commit sexual offences. Importantly, we must protect children from sexual harm. As part of our commitment to equality, we also aim to ensure that the law on sex offences is non-discriminatory in its application to men and women and to heterosexuals and non-heterosexuals. Ministers are committed to public safety and to keeping the management of sex offenders under constant review. We will take forward a range of work where improvements can be made. There is more about this in Chapter 5.

• We have asked the Scottish Law Commission to carry out a review of the law on rape and other sex offences. We will give careful consideration to the recommendations of the Law Commission and will bring forward any necessary legislation. This will be a major review involving consultation by the Commission and will take about 2 years, but meantime we propose to legislate to ensure that there are no gaps in the protection given to children under the law.
• We will improve the standard of service to victims and witnesses, and deliver comprehensive guidance and training to prosecution staff engaged in this work following the review of the investigation and prosecution of rape and sexual offences being carried out by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
• We will improve the recording and use of police intelligence for the protection of children and vulnerable adults by implementing the Bichard Inquiry recommendations.
• We will fund specialised training for 400 frontline police and social workers in assessing the risk which individual sex offenders pose to communities.

Tougher on Kerb Crawling

1.19 There is a Partnership Agreement to make kerb crawling an offence.

• The Expert Group on Prostitution referred to above will submit its Stage 1 Report (on street prostitution and kerb crawling) to Ministers shortly.

Tougher on Hate Crime

1.20 There is no place in Scotland for crimes motivated by prejudice and discrimination. We are committed to making Scotland's communities safe and secure and to delivering public services which focus on the interests of the victims of crime.

• An independent review of the arrangement for marches and parades in Scotland will, among other things, look at the best way to secure community input into decisions.
• We are considering the recommendations of the Working Group on Hate Crime and will take action where necessary to ensure such crimes are dealt with robustly.

Tougher on Violent and Knife crime

1.21 Scotland has a long standing problem with knife crime. Around half of all murders involve knives as do over a third of all acts of violence. In too many of our communities young people, and young men in particular, carry knives routinely.

• We have a five point plan of action which we believe will tackle the impact of knife crime across Scotland today. This will involve:
  • Introducing a licensing scheme on the sale of non-domestic knives and similar instruments;
  • Increasing the age for the purchase of knives from 16 to 18;
  • Banning the sale of swords;
  • Ensuring that the police make more use of stop and search powers, but also that they have the power of arrest on suspicion of carrying a knife or an offensive weapon; and
  • Doubling the sentence for possession of a knife or offensive weapon from two years to four years.
• We will take forward this work next year as part of our Framework for Reducing Violence which, in its first steps, will focus particularly on local areas where there is greatest incidence of violence, including knife crime.

Tougher on Crime against Business

1.22 Crime against business hits everyone, not just by adding to business costs, but also by attacking the enterprises and services which allow a community to thrive. Preventing crime against business is not just a matter for the police. If crime against business is to be tackled effectively, business needs to take a prominent role in a partnership approach in preventing and reducing it. Partnerships need to co-ordinate activity by the police, local authorities, and local retailers to jointly tackle crime and enhance community safety, focusing on our city and town centres.

• We will address business crime and retail crime through the SBCC, a partnership involving the Scottish Executive, the police and leading business and commerce organisations in Scotland.
• To reduce business crime in all our major cities a national co-ordinator has been appointed to extend the Safe City Centre Initiative mentioned above to other towns in Scotland.

Conclusions

« Previous | Contents | Next »