Funding boost for offending services

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.

Cash awards

• Argyll and Bute – £183,633
• East Ayrshire  – £396,502
• East Dunbartonshire – £170,554
• East Renfrewshire – £158,334
• North Ayrshire – £500,970
• North Lanarkshire – £1,074,871
• Renfrewshire – £570,956
• South Ayrshire – £263,048
• South Lanarkshire – £822,812
• West Dunbartonshire – £416,335