Chamber and committees

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.

I can provide the committee with the most recent published data from the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, which demonstrates that there was a 9 per cent reduction in sexual crimes from 2021-22 to 2024-25. I can, of course, go away and dig deeper into the recorded crime statistics to see whether there is a breakdown of the age of offenders in any particular category. We know from the growing up in Scotland longitudinal study that there has been a significant decrease in youth offending among our young people over the past 20 years. However, that will be of no comfort if you are a victim or the family of a victim, particularly of violence.

There is evidence about the longer-term and medium-term trends in the reduction of youth offending. There are two aspects to prevention and early intervention.

This is where I acknowledge, as justice secretary, that universal services, such as education, health, early learning and child care, support for families and support for parents, are all crucial, as are the building blocks that are associated with the equally safe strategy and the funds that are routed through delivering equally safe.

Another layer of early intervention is about responding to the risks and needs that give cause for concern, because it is important that we prevent an issue or a problem from becoming a crisis. I saw a lot of that in my previous working life. I saw how problems grew and became crises, sometimes with very tragic consequences.

No, we have not. I know for a fact that cases of shoplifting are prosecuted. I can see that as being pertinent in the adult system, so it is prosecuted.

I think that it is accurate to say that shoplifting has significantly increased while crimes of dishonesty have significantly decreased overall. Shoplifting is still a challenge. It is particularly damaging to businesses and it will make shop workers and owners fearful. That is why, at the end of last year and the start of this year, £3 million was specifically allocated in the budget to Police Scotland to tackle shoplifting. Assistant Chief Constable Tim Mairs has been leading on that work. Some of that work is about providing a police presence, and some of it is about supporting shopkeepers and to do with communication. Shopkeepers are asked to be alert to who is doing what and to share that information with the police. Shoplifting is a particular issue in parts of Edinburgh, as it is in other areas of Scotland, too.

I remember from my days in social policy that colleagues there, and, to a lesser extent, in education, certainly engaged in such discussions. In particular, they supported our third-sector organisations and linked them up with philanthropic organisations and foundations. Probably a good example of that, although I am a wee bit rusty on that side of the house these days, is the work of the organisation Inspiring Scotland.

There is a range of partnerships. As MSPs, we have probably all been involved in bringing together local businesses with good causes in our constituencies.

Mr Ewing makes an interesting point and I am happy to write to the committee about the issue if you wish.

A broad range of agencies have a role. I will start with justice social work, and social work more broadly, because it is an area that I know well. There is a huge role for justice social workers in the management of people who offend, but they are not telling me that they need any more powers to supervise release licences or community payback orders. I am interested in the work that is being done by our independent sentencing and penal policy commission in respect of our prison population. The question is whether we have the right breadth and depth of disposals and alternatives to custody. However, I do not want to go too far off-piste from my purpose here today.

Children and families social workers are hugely important. I am very pleased that my colleague, Ms Gilruth, has invested in some additional financial support for student social workers, because there is a recruitment and retention issue, particularly for children and families social workers, who have big child protection responsibilities. Obviously, doctors, nurses and schoolteachers all have a responsibility for safeguarding and for engaging with other services when there is a wellbeing concern. A whole host of services right across the public sector have very particular responsibilities.

That is the $6 million question, convener, and it is what we have to challenge ourselves with, as politicians and as parents. We are not sighted on all aspects of our young people’s lives, that is for sure.

I know about some of the work that other colleagues across Government have done to invest in and ensure that we have the right content on the Parent Club website. It is a question of how we reach more parents and more adults who are involved in ensuring that our children are safeguarded and well. We have a clear programme for Government commitment, and I am very pleased that Siobhian Brown, the Minister for Victims and Community Safety, and Natalie Don-Innes, the Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise, are leading the online harms task force. That is an important bit of work. Notwithstanding the fact that regulation on online activity and online harms is reserved, we as a Government want to do everything that is in our capacity.

We need to engage young people; in many ways, they will guide us. As justice secretary, I am acutely conscious that the figures that started to emerge a few years ago show that the proportion of young people who are either the victim or perpetrator of image sharing or online harm is significant. That is why our services need to engage with our young people on the realities of their lives. They are much more tech savvy, I suspect, than anybody sitting around this table.

You might recall the Online Safety Act 2023, on which we engaged closely with the UK Government. Under the act are new offences that apply to Scotland on the criminalisation of sharing materials that are intended to encourage or assist in harming others. Part of our work is to raise awareness and make young people aware of the risks associated with those harms, as well as the risks associated with breaking the law.

There are examples of the uniformed organisations engaging with young people. I know that Police Scotland has a youth volunteers scheme. The military has its cadets, and they are very visible, certainly in the community that I represent, at local gala days and events.

At the end of the day, this is everybody’s responsibility. These are our children, and we need to exercise our responsibility to rear them well and keep them safe and happy.