Seòmar agus comataidhean

There is nothing soft about our justice system. The Scottish crime and justice survey is an important flagship survey. It gives us good information and the longer-term trajectories speak to falling rates of youth crime and Scotland being safer. However, you are quite right to point to the fact that the proportion of violent crime where the perpetrator is a child has increased to 31 per cent of incidents. That is what I meant earlier when I said that there is newer information in the shorter term that gives cause for concern. We need to acknowledge that it is not acceptable and that it must be addressed.

You ask what has gone wrong. I think that it is the change in the behaviour of some young people due to the challenges that I spoke about earlier. I know that people do not always appreciate this, but it was ably articulated at the round-table discussion chaired by the First Minister and me that lockdown during Covid has had an impact on young people’s behaviour. Youth work leaders, people at the forefront of violence prevention and, of course, teachers in our schools will all narrate that as a reason. We have spoken at length about the online harms that are exposing our children to outside influences, and that is an issue. Related to that is the influence of what is called toxic masculinity on some of our young men. Those are three important drivers of the recent changes.

As for what is gonnae work, there is value in and a place for youth work. I am a huge advocate for youth work, which is supported via the cashback for communities programme, for example. We often tfdshink of punishment, and there is a place for that, but, to change behaviour, young people need reliable and trusted relationships. We absolutely must continue with prevention work and must not be swayed into thinking that we need to put all our eggs into the punishment basket. We must continue to commit to the long-term preventative work, because we are seeing long-term improvements as a result. However, there is no doubt that we need to be acutely aware of and address the recent changes in the behaviour of some young people.

Involved?

I do not have any figures at hand for that, but I can certainly—

In phase 7 of the scheme, which is a three-year period, £26 million has been allocated, which is an increase on the initial £20 million. That is very much in response to some of the short-term changes that we are seeing in the behaviour of some young people.

I will give some examples in response to your question, Mr Ewing. In 2023-24, the total cashback scheme expenditure was just under £6 million. In 2024-25, it was £6.7 million, and the forecast for 2025-26 is £6.8 million. Around 90 per cent of that goes on cashback projects, but smaller amounts are allocated to staff costs and partners’ delivery costs.

I believe that Police Scotland has the resources and the appropriate powers. I am always open to dialogue, of course. My engagement with the police and with families is very important in that regard.

Police officers need reasonable cause for stop and search. However, there are powers under section 60 of, I think, the Public Order Act 1986, under which, if there are concerns about serious violence, an officer of the rank of inspector or above can utilise stop and search without reasonable cause. Stop and search is an important tool, but it is only one tool. Police officers are also involved in campus cops’ work, and they engage with young people and children. Police Scotland also has a youth volunteer programme.

It is also important to look at the evidence. In 2024, there were 6,000 uses of stop and search involving young people, which was an increase of 35 per cent. There were 4,500 in 2023, so that was a big increase. However, the number of bladed objects found and retrieved remained about the same: the figures were 151 for 2024 and 154 for 2023. Therefore, it is quite difficult to isolate evidence that shows that stop and search reduces knife crime. It is a tool, and is part of a much bigger approach.

Thank you, convener, and good morning. I very much appreciate the opportunity to join you in your deliberations. I will make a few brief remarks.

It is important to say that the vast majority of our children and young people are law abiding and do not engage in offending behaviour. Overall, referrals to the children’s reporter on offence grounds have decreased by more than 15 per cent in 2024-2025, compared with 2023-2024. Police Scotland’s figures show that the total number of serious assaults by 11 to 18-year-olds has fallen by 27 per cent over the past five years. Nonetheless, there are growing concerns about the issue, and other information requires to be acknowledged and addressed.

We have seen tragic incidents, with the loss of three young lives, over the past year, which demonstrates the absolute devastation and heartbreak that youth offending can have.

I appreciate that the committee will be aware of some of the work that we do through the violence prevention framework, in which we have invested more than £6 million since 2023. That is very much focused on prevention activities, including for young people.

We know that more needs to be done, and that is why we held the summit on youth violence on 12 June, involving the First Minister and MSPs across the chamber, as well as those who are involved in youth work and violence prevention. The summit highlighted the importance of education, community engagement, youth work, the creation of safe places and whole-family support, and the roles that those things have in tackling youth violence. We are considering what more needs to be done to strengthen that work for young people, for families and, of course, for communities.

I will respond to your remarks, convener. It is correct that we want to keep children out of the criminal justice system where that is possible and appropriate. That is to ensure that children receive support to address their behaviour, their needs and the risks that they pose, while ensuring—this is crucial—that our communities are safe and that victims are fully supported. Any decision on whether to prosecute a child through the criminal courts or to refer a child jointly to the principal reporter is, of course, a matter for the independent prosecutor.

I am happy to take questions.

It is important to say that the Scottish ministers are not the decision makers in individual cases that go either to the children’s hearings system or to our courts. However, your question about evidence is very important, and there are decades of evidence. I am afraid to say that I am old enough to remember what it used to be like, as a former prison and hospital social worker before I entered Parliament. I remember when Polmont had several hundred boys in it. I remember the young offenders institute at Glenochil. I remember children coming in on a Friday night on unruly certificates when I worked at HMP Perth. I remember the countless adults I worked with and wrote parole reports on who had come through the old borstal system.

We also know that, if children become involved in the criminal justice system, they are less likely to desist from criminal behaviour, and the risk that they will become adult offenders or long-term offenders increases—you will often have heard prison referred to as the university of crime.

There are studies—the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, which is a longitudinal study, along with the Growing Up in Scotland study—that recognise the causes of youth offending and that, in reducing offending, it is more effective to address the issues of extreme trauma, adverse childhood experiences, neglect, childhood sexual abuse, criminal child exploitation and bereavement facing young people who come into conflict with the law. That is why we have adopted the whole-systems approach, which, first and foremost, is based on prevention. That does not mean that children and young people cannot be deprived of their liberty. There remains a criminal justice response for over-18s and via the children’s hearings system.

Yes. Of course, it would be for justice agencies to intervene in that regard. I will see what information we have, but I do not have anything at my fingertips right now—my apologies.

The information that I saw last night was not the most up to date; it was a few years old. It spoke to the proportion of young people as victims and perpetrators of online offending. The quit fighting for likes campaign was rerun in March and will be rerun later this year. It is ably assisted by the Scottish violence reduction unit, and it is supported by an increase in funding to that organisation. Ms Brown has led work on sextortion. We are also getting into cyber-related fraud work. Such crime exploits our young people, lures them into sending images and sends them threatening remarks and materials about disclosing those images. The crime has had tragic consequences for some young people.

I will certainly share that thought with colleagues, convener. I am not the sole arbiter of Government-led debates or business, and I do not want to get six of the belt from the Minister for Parliamentary Business. I know that we have a heavy legislative programme between now and dissolution.

However, one thing that was really important about the summits was that we not only talk about but respond to what we have heard. It is crucial that we engage with young people—there was a youth summit earlier this year—and there is value in engaging on a cross-party basis with people who are on the front line of youth work and violence reduction and violence prevention work.

There have certainly been some actions, including supporting the work of the Scottish violence prevention unit on online harms. The unit will be engaging with young people who have higher risks, if I can put it that way.

It was about the time of the summit on youth violence that we opened phase 7 of cashback scheme, and that was a good way of highlighting that funding to organisations.

We need to do more on the three specific issues that are perhaps underlying the more recent change in some young people’s behaviour. There is genuine commonality around the importance of prevention and early intervention. Yes, we can adapt, implement measures and do different things within that, but we cannot walk away from prevention because we will do that at our peril. We must stick with that.

I simply want to thank you, convener, for the invitation. If I can be of any more assistance to your deliberations, I will be only too happy to oblige in writing or in person or whatever.