Chamber and committees

Firework control zone statutory guidance, which was jointly developed with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, was issued in June 2023. It makes clear that local authorities should, where possible, establish a local process to give communities the ability to make the case for the designation of firework control zones through a community request.

The format and detail of the community request process will be determined by each local authority. I repeat the encouragement that I have given previously to all local authorities to establish published and accessible details about community request processes.

I hope that the information that I have provided is helpful for Clare Haughey’s on-going engagement with South Lanarkshire Council in that regard.

I have had a briefing with Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service after bonfire night and the implementation of the firework control zones. I have not engaged with the City of Edinburgh Council yet, but I will do so. I am happy to report back to Katy Clark.

Regarding the numbers, some of the figures that have been in the local press do not take into account solicitors on joint duty plans. Additionally, they do not include publicly employed public defence solicitors.

The legal aid trainee fund is due to end in March 2025, and learning lessons from previous grant-funding projects such as that is extremely important. The outcome of the evaluation will help to shape and inform any decisions with regard to future traineeship. The fund will finish in March 2025, and then we will evaluate it.

I acknowledge—I have been up front on the parliamentary timetable—that it is unlikely that primary legislation and legal aid reform will happen in this parliamentary term. However, I am committed to making legal aid reform within the next 18 months.

Legal aid needs to be better able to identify and anticipate the needs of service users to allocate resources where they are most needed and to ensure that it is accessible, consistent and transparent and has a clear focus on delivering policy objectives. That work is on-going and a paper on legal aid reform will be published imminently.

Since 2008, cashback for communities has committed £130 million of money recovered through the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to support around 1.3 million young people across all 32 local authorities in Scotland. Cashback-funded partners provide a spectrum of interventions, including providing safe spaces, trusted adults and a range of positive diversionary and support activity to young people who may be at risk of entering the criminal justice system and communities that are impacted by crime.

The programme delivers national and local projects, with particular efforts made to work in the lowest 20 per cent of Scottish index of multiple deprivation areas to ensure equality of opportunities for our young people. That is reflected in the annual impact report, which will be published shortly.

As the member knows, up to £20 million has been committed to phase 6 of the programme, and the Scottish Government will always endeavour to do what we can to improve the collection of the proceeds of crime.

The member raises examples of great work that is happening in his constituency. I urge all MSPs to look at the cashback work that is going on in their constituencies and pay a visit.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of transparency when it comes to evaluating the cashback for communities programme. The impact of the programme is evidenced in two ways. Each year, an impact report is published, which provides evidence of how cashback has positively impacted young people’s lives and provides an opportunity for young people to make their voices heard.

In addition, an independent evaluation is commissioned to review the impact and value of each three-year phase of cashback for communities. We have appointed Bean Research to evaluate phase 6 of the programme. The evaluation will assess the effectiveness of the programme, with a particular emphasis on measuring and reporting social changes that the programme delivers.

We continue our commitment to support the SFRS to deliver a high standard of services that are required to keep the whole of Scotland safe. As I said, in the 2024-25 budget there was £393.3 million, which is £79 million more than it was back in 2017-18. Decisions on how that budget is spent is a matter for the SFRS board. We will continue to work closely with the SFRS to identify funding needs.

The Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022 gave local authorities powers to designate firework control zones. It is for them to decide how they use those powers. This year, four zones were designated by the City of Edinburgh Council.

Statutory guidance is available to support local authorities, and the Scottish Government has made funding available for consulting on and implementing the zones. South Lanarkshire Council has not requested any of that funding or approached my officials about the possibility of doing so.

More broadly, I recognise the nature of problems that are caused by fireworks, and I have written to the United Kingdom Government to ask for a meeting to discuss what more can be done on fireworks regulation.

Unlike England and Wales, where there have been significant cuts to legal aid scope and funding, we have maintained the scope and resourcing of legal aid.

The expenditure for legal aid provides timescales. The expenditure in the financial year 2023-24 was £151 million. That is demand led, and it was £10 million higher than the allocated budget. It was a 12 per cent increase on 2022-23 and a 16 per cent increase from 2019-20.

We do not intend to replicate the changes of the United Kingdom Government with reduced legal aid, but we agree that an independent review of reform is needed.