Funding boost for offending services - 8/29/2003

Services to help prevent young people from offending in Scotland have been given 50 per cent extra funding over the next two years.

Friday 29 August 2003 10:53

Services to help prevent young people from offending in Scotland have been given 50 per cent extra funding over the next two years.

Local authorities and their partners will receive an increase in funding for youth justice services from £10m to £15m by 2005-6.

Cathy Jamieson, the Scottish executive justice minister, said the extra investment would help councils achieve national targets, such as reducing the number of persistent young offenders in Scotland by 10 per cent.

She said: "There is no single solution to tackling and reducing youth crime. That is why the Scottish executive is already providing funding for a range of local measures - from prevention and early intervention programmes to the most intensive and robust methods of supervision."

The money is designed to help local authorities achieve a range of national targets in youth justice - including reducing the number of persistent young offenders in Scotland by 10 per cent.

Jamieson said that investment in services for young offenders meant that Scotland now had 3,000 places on restorative youth justice programmes.

Places already exist on schemes for 1,250 young people. There are three pilots for fast-track court hearings and a pilot youth court in South Lanarkshire.

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