A Safer Scotland: Tackling Crime and its Causes

The way forward

The Government's strategy needs to be followed through with systematic implementation and evaluation, taking account of the views of the community.

Devolution

1. The Scotland Act 1998 establishes a new Parliament for Scotland but reserves to the Westminster Parliament matters which are best considered on a GB or UK basis. The list of reserved matters is set out in Schedule 5 to the Scotland Act and includes, for example, the law of treason, firearms, extradition and the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. However, subject to a certain number of such reservations, criminal law is generally a devolved matter, and from July the Scottish Parliament will be the proper forum for considering any necessary changes to it.

Protecting the public

2. The Government are committed to a long-term approach, but also to active, imaginative crime prevention which delivers results quickly; and to firm enforcement action to deter criminals and apprehend them when crimes are committed. We will therefore support the police, and the other agencies involved, in their action to prevent and solve crimes. Specifically, we need to: improve community safety: ensure community safety partnerships are developed throughout Scotland, focusing action on crime 'hotspots', fund 3 innovative Communities that Care projects in high crime areas, and introduce anti-social behaviour orders from April 1999 to tackle the problem of disruptive neighbours. continue our strong support of the police: concentrate police effort on making an impact whereit matters most - where people live and work - and specify objectives more clearly and openly to encourage efficiency improvements by:- calling for the first time for reports by Chief Constables on how they have improved efficiency in their forces; investing in new computer systems for the police to improve speed and accuracy of information transfer - an extra £2.5 million has been provided over the next 3 years; installing an extra 5 automatic fingerprint recognition terminals in Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow, to speed up identification.

strengthen drugs enforcement in the criminal justice system: set up a Drugs Enforcement Forum to co-ordinate the work of all agencies involved (police forces, and the Scottish Crime Squad, Customs and Excise, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, local authorities and others); step up action targeted on drug dealers, including an increased use of the power to confiscate their assets. ensure that enforcement issues are tackled in The Scottish Office's enhanced drugs strategy, and develop effective links between community safety partnerships and Drug Action Teams, to help tackle particular local problems.

strengthen action to protect children and others from abuse: legislate against people who take advantage of a position of trust to abuse those in their care; consult on the proposal to set up a 'Consultancy Index' of those who have been banned from working with children; extend the availability of criminal record checks for those who are intending to work with vulnerable groups.

reinforce conventional and proven action to prevent crime: widen the successful CCTV Challenge Competition to include other measures which tackle crime incommunities; take action to cut vehicle crime by 30% over the next 5 years.

make domestic violence socially unacceptable: arrange careful publicity to challenge the attitudes of those who perpetrate this crime - which accounts for one quarter of all violent crime - and support continued action by the police to identify and charge those responsible.

improve our impact on youth crime: consider how best to manage the boundary between Children's Hearings and the adult court system; encourage innovative approaches, developed with the help of young people, and publicise evidence ofmeasures which have been shown to work - such as the 'Child Safety Initiatives' in Hamilton - so that local communities can decide what solutions work best in their areas.

take action against drug and alcohol misuse and associated criminal activity: intensify drugs education work, to reduce the number of people who turn to drugs; continue to pursue effective treatment of those who do misuse drugs; research the links between drug misuse and other criminal activity; probe the links between drink and crime to establish what can be done to reduce alcohol related crime.

Tackling the causes of crime

3. The Government hold to the commitment to tackle the underlying causes of crime _ the social, educational, health and economic disadvantages which create the conditions which can lead to crime. This is a long term policy. The major social improvements which we are putting in place are not, of course, simply, or even primarily, a crime prevention measure. They are designed to create a better society in Scotland and the returns in terms of crime prevention will not be immediate. We, therefore, have to hold faith with this long term approach to crime prevention in tackling fundamental causes.

4. In pursuit of this long term strategy, the Government intend to : spend an extra £4 billion over the next 3 years with a focus on education and health, intervening early to prevent young people becoming criminals; publish a social inclusion strategy designed to tackle social disadvantage in a coherent way; set up social inclusion partnerships which will start work in April 1999; develop pathfinder initiatives on better co-ordination of local service delivery; develop imaginative schemes designed to promote positive activities for young people in the field of recreation and divert them from minor criminal activity, based on the experience of previous successful projects; develop up a pilot scheme of early intervention to reduce risk factors for vulnerable 8-14 year olds.

Dealing effectively with offenders

5. While a full range of crime prevention measures will continue to be the basis of one Government's policy, it is inevitable that people will still offend, and we have to deal effectively with offenders. There is a need to concentrate the use of prison on those who have committed serious offences and those who pose a danger to the public. When they are in prison, we want actively to engage with them and their offending behaviour and try to change it. We will back the Scottish Prison Service in its continuing development of programmes aimed at change. These range from tackling drug misuse to the difficult task of trying to change the behaviour of sex offenders.

6. For the less serious offender, we have to develop a range of effective community disposals. The aim is to avoid the disruption and expense of unnecessary imprisonment and to promote effective ways of changing people's behaviour while they remain in the community with their families and pursue employment.

7. On sentencing, the Government's aim is to develop a common understanding of the purposes of sentencing and to ensure that when imprisonment is used, it is as a positive choice to protect the public and to deter from serious offending, rather than as a negative choice because nothing else is thought to work. This is especially the case with young offenders, where we need to develop penalties which specifically work for them. Therefore we: will continue development work on the Sentencing Information System; look forward to the report of Lord MacLean's committee on the sentencing and treatment of serious sex and violent offenders, including those with personality disorders who may present a continuing danger to the public. The committee will ensure that a fundamental look is taken at how to deal with the type of crime which most concerns the public; will consider strengthening the powers of the courts to order confiscation of assets and to ensure that criminals cannot profit from their crime; will take forward pilot projects on electronic tagging, drug testing and treatment orders and the use of driving disqualification as a penalty in non-driving offences; will strengthen community disposals following on from our consultation paper Community Sentencing -the Tough Option; will take steps to integrate the support available to offenders to enable them to become economically active and reduce future offending; will promote innovative projects to deal with persistent offending by young people, drawing on our successful experience of pilot projects; will pursue a pilot scheme to address the employment-related needs of offenders through a combined employment/intensive probation project as an alternative to a prison sentence. will support the Scottish Prison Service as it develops its programmes for addressing offending behaviour.

Streamlining the system

8. Scotland can be proud of its distinctive system of criminal justice, but like all systems it requires modernisation to keep pace with the changes in society - and in crime - around it. The Government will continue the drive for efficiency in the courts so that victims do not need to wait to see justice done, and witnesses and police officers are not kept hanging about courts. In particular we need to: provide in the Criminal Justice Forum a focus for inter-agency strategic work, directed in particular towardsimproving the efficiency of the criminal justice system; implement the recommendations of the Efficiency Task Group; review the structure of criminal justice social work services; speed up the handling of cases in the Children's Hearings system and continue to encourage measures to eradicate 'dead' time in the system; promote and develop good practice and management across the full range of services provided by local authorities, voluntary agencies and others to the criminal justice system; encourage new initiatives making the best use of Information Technology in the criminal justice system, in particular through the Integration of Scottish Criminal Justice Information Systems project; implement reforms of the legal aid system to give the public the best value for money, while continuing to ensure access to justice.

Building Public Confidence

9. Any justice system needs to be fair to all those concerned in the process. The public must have confidence that the system convicts the guilty and acquits the innocent. They need to be confident that, if they are witnesses or victims, the system will deal with them with consideration. The Government will therefore: pursue measures to support vulnerable and intimidated witnesses, including children; continue to explore ways to recognise and support the needs of victims and allow their voice to be heard in the criminal justice system; implement the Action Plan on Violence Against Women in the light of responses to consultation; ask the Scottish Partnership on Domestic Violence to report by March 1999 with its proposed workplan; bring the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission into operation on 1 April 1999.

Comments

The Government welcome views on these plans and if you have any comments on the issues contained in this paper, or if you require any further information, then please contact:

Isabel Drummond-Murray, Criminal Justice Division, The Scottish Office Home Department, Spur W1, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, EDINBURGH EH11 3XD

In accordance with normal Scottish Office practice, any comments received will be made publicly available on request, unless respondents indicate that they wish their comments to remain confidential.