Chamber and committees

Initial plans for the development of a community justice centre took place under the previous Administration. Work on the current feasibility study started in June 2008.

As part of the 2009-10 funding settlement for Community Justice Authorities an additional £1 million has been provided to reflect the increased numbers of community service orders. This is additional to the extra £1 million announced last October to assist local authorities in improving delivery standards for community service.

The government has already invested an additional £2 million in the current year to support local authorities'' increased workload on community penalties and to help them to deliver community service orders which start “ and finish “ much more quickly.

Our assumptions on the cost of introducing the more robust and flexible Community Payback Order are set out in the Financial Memorandum to the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill.

The government has already invested an additional £2 million in the current year to support local authorities'' increased workload on community penalties and to help them to deliver community service orders which start “ and finish “ much more quickly.

Our assumptions on the cost of introducing the more robust and flexible Community Payback Order are set out in the Financial Memorandum to the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-22439 on 23 April 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The Scottish Government is committed to reducing violence and knife crime in our communities and takes an interest in initiatives in other areas which could contribute to our efforts. Crimestoppers are currently evaluating the knife carrier text service and plan to produce an evaluation in June 2009. The Scottish Government will assess the success of the text service and its suitability for Scotland once it has seen the evaluation from Crimestoppers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-22439 on 23 April 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0423-01.htm

The Scottish Government is fully committed to reducing gang violence across Scotland and is taking direct action to tackle the problem. Last December, we announced a £1.6 million funding package to support the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV) project, which is targeting 55 gangs and up to 700 young men in the east end of Glasgow. This groundbreaking project is delivering a mix of tough enforcement and intensive services to turn around young lives. We are also supporting a Scotland-wide initiative that is delivering a range of programmes and activities to up to 500 young men in an attempt to challenge their attitudes towards gang membership and change their behaviour. This work is being supported by visible and sustained police enforcement which is being co-ordinated by the national Violence Reduction Unit through its on-going anti-violence campaign, the latest phase of which has been targeting gang violence.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-22306 on 21 April 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.