Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Official Report 835KB pdf

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Preventing Sexual Offending Involving Children and Young People

The next item of business is a statement by Michael Matheson on preventing sexual offending involving children and young people. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of his statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions.

14:23  

Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of Scotland’s children and young people is a key priority for us all. As Cabinet Secretary for Justice, I am committed to a preventative approach to offending that involves children and young people. Our “Justice Vision and Priorities” underlines our commitment to being led by the best available evidence. Our whole-system approach to offending by young people is proven to work, as it has driven down offending referrals by over 80 per cent in the past decade. It involves emphasising timely and appropriate action to address crime and its causes, through early and effective intervention, diversion and specialist support. That complements a broader focus on prevention, mainly through universal children’s services as part of getting it right for every child.

However, we will always need more specialist support and intervention for some young people. In 2016, I commissioned research to analyse the increase in the “Other sexual crimes” category of police-recorded crime. That category had grown to become the largest category of sexual offences: 40 per cent of recorded sexual crime is made up of other sexual crimes. It is the largest individual category ahead of sexual assault.

There were suggestions that that growth was driven in part by an increase in cyber-related offences. The research report “Recorded Crime in Scotland: Other Sexual Crimes, 2013-14 and 2016-17” highlighted that offences that fall into the other sexual crimes category are often committed online. It is important to note that online crimes are much more likely to have younger victims, who are mainly female, and younger perpetrators, who are mainly male.

According to the research report, it is estimated that around half the increase in all recorded sexual crime is due to the growth in other sexual crimes that are committed online, which include behaviour such as communicating indecently or causing others to view sexual activity or images. Where those crimes are committed online, there is a disproportionate impact on our young people. Three quarters of victims in 2016-17 were under 16, with an average age of 14. In a quarter of cases, both the victim and the perpetrator were under 16. The research highlighted a significant gendered element across all other sexual crimes. In 2016-17, four in every five victims of other sexual crimes were female, and the vast majority of perpetrators were male.

Alongside that research, the Solicitor General for Scotland and I announced on 26 September our intention to establish an expert group on preventing sexual offending involving children and young people. Earlier in September, Alison Di Rollo had hosted an education summit, at which it was noted that cases reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service that involved a sexual offence committed against a child by another child rose by 34 per cent in the five years to 2015-16.

As the Solicitor General said, those disturbing and depressing cases can give rise to profoundly difficult, as well as important, decisions for prosecutors, in relation to the criminal law and the public interest. They have consequences for the accused, for the complainer, for the witnesses, for their families and for our society as a whole. They have consequences whether or not criminal proceedings are taken.

In recent years, we have come to understand more about the relationship between trauma and adverse childhood experiences and outcomes such as offending and imprisonment. There is a growing body of evidence that one of the most significant factors in predicting whether a child will commit criminal offences in the future is contact with the criminal justice system at an early age.

Prevention is undoubtedly preferable to prosecution, albeit that we recognise that for the most serious cases prosecution will be required. We need to understand better why young people—predominantly males—are motivated to behave in such a way. We need to understand better how we can prevent sexual offending, in order to minimise risk of harm and the number of victims.

Considerable effort is being exerted across Government, including national campaigns around child sexual exploitation, our national action plan on internet safety, and our “Equally Safe” strategy. However, we need a fresh impetus, armed with the very best evidence and the most useful tools, to prevent this type of offending.

The expert group, with its focus on prevention, education, health and wellbeing and child protection, and with a significant justice interface, will identify the further steps that are needed if we are to better tackle and ultimately prevent such offending.

I am pleased to announce that Catherine Dyer will chair the expert group. Catherine’s background as Crown Agent and chief executive of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, and her role in chairing the independent child protection system review, mean that she is uniquely placed to lead on this vital work. She will ensure that the expert group examines the necessary issues with independence, rigour and a fresh eye. I know that she is very mindful of existing policies and programmes and of the interactions between existing systems.

The expert group will bring together professional and academic expertise from justice, education, child protection, health and the third sector. Its work will identify fresh actions to better prevent sexual crime involving children and young people and to mitigate the harm that it causes. The group will consider the implications of the recent research and other evidence and relevant data. It will conduct an assessment of existing policies, interventions and programmes, and it will look at the impact of wider societal and technological changes. It will draw on lessons from preventative work on violence reduction and will link strategically with other developments across justice, education and health.

I should point to the good work that is already being done by the Government and partners that contributes to this agenda. For example, we are working closely with the children’s sector to implement the actions that are outlined in the national action plans on child sexual exploitation and internet safety. Health and wellbeing is at the heart of children’s learning, and schools are supported through guidance on relationships, sexual health and parenthood education. That is an important part of the school curriculum in Scotland.

However, we know that, in the modern world, we need to ensure that children and young people are provided with learning that fits the ever-evolving digital world. As most members will be aware, the Government has commissioned a review of personal and social education as part of its mental health strategy. It is looking at the delivery across our primary and secondary schools of a wide area of subjects, including relationships, sexual health and parenthood. The review commenced earlier this year and it is expected to provide recommendations to ministers by the end of 2018.

“Equally Safe”, the Scottish Government’s strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls, has promoted a concerted effort by relevant sectors to deliver a holistic response to tackling violence against women and girls. It puts a decisive focus on prevention while ensuring that we have effective services for survivors and that perpetrators receive the strongest possible response.

Over the next few weeks, my Cabinet colleague Angela Constance will publish a delivery plan to further focus our efforts. As well as building on our strong progress on strengthening legislation and building the capacity of services, it will recognise and focus action on the fact that preventing violence requires the underlying attitudes and inequalities that create the societal conditions for that violence to be eradicated.

We are investing in programmes that promote internet safety and explore the online behaviour of young people, including Police Scotland’s choices for life peer mentoring programme, the mentors in violence prevention programme, Stop It Now! Scotland, and Sacro’s challenging harmful online images and child exploitation programme. In addition, funding from the violence against women and girls justice budget is supporting Rape Crisis Scotland to deliver a sexual violence prevention programme across a number of local authorities in Scotland. That work is vital in helping to deepen young people’s understanding of consent and healthy relationships.

The remit of the expert group extends to all sexual offending and harm involving children and young people, including situations in which a child is the victim or the perpetrator—sometimes, they might even be both—and there will be a particular focus on cyber-enabled offending. The group’s remit will not focus on adult perpetrators of sexual violence. The criminal justice system and the multi-agency public protection arrangements will remain at the core of protecting the public from sexual offences where the perpetrator is an adult.

The expert group will map and raise the visibility of existing approaches, identify gaps and explore best practice, including insight from other countries.

Young people must be involved in that work in a meaningful way. We will invite the Scottish Youth Parliament and Young Scot to be part of the expert group, and YouthLink Scotland can provide insight from a young person’s perspective, drawing on the success that we have had with the no knives, better lives model.

Given the research outcomes, a gendered analysis will be a significant component. When it comes to cyber-enabled sexual offences, it is clear that young women and girls are predominantly the victims, whereas young men and boys are predominantly the perpetrators.

The expert group will be focused and time limited. It is expected to conclude its work by the end of March 2019.

A preliminary meeting with a number of third sector organisations to scope membership took place on 30 October. I thank Rape Crisis Scotland, Stop It Now! Scotland, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Barnardo’s Scotland and others, including the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and Police Scotland, for supporting those discussions.

We want to draw on all available expertise. That will include the Coalition of Care Providers in Scotland, Rape Crisis Scotland, Stop it now! Scotland, child protection committees Scotland, the national child protection leadership group, Education Scotland, the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration and a nomination from the chief medical officer for Scotland. Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service will also be part of the group. We will invite the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland to nominate a member. We will also draw on academic expertise from the specific areas that are being considered. The chair will have flexibility to invite others such as Zero Tolerance and child exploitation and online protection command to augment the work of the group.

I hope that members will welcome the direction being taken through the expert group and support the focus on a preventative approach to reducing the number of children who are involved in sexual offending as victims and as perpetrators

Thank you. We will now take questions, starting with Michelle Ballantyne.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am also grateful to the cabinet secretary for prior sight of his statement.

This is an extremely important issue and one that challenges just about everybody who works with young people in our communities. There is no doubting that the cabinet secretary has covered a wide range of approaches that are being taken at the moment. I am particularly glad to welcome the pulling together of all those things with an expert group to look at how we go forward and how we ensure that we are doing the right things—the things that will make a difference to the young people who are affected by this issue.

Establishing the expert group is the right way to go. I particularly welcome the appointment of Catherine Dyer to chair it, which she is very appropriately qualified to do. I really look forward to the group’s findings and what it has to tell us.

I have two small questions regarding the group. First, the cabinet secretary mentioned the involvement of young people, which is absolutely critical, but there was no mention of families. Will he ensure that families are also involved in a meaningful way? Obviously families have a lot to contribute, and it is very important that we hear how they cope with their young people and how they can get involved in preventing the sort of experiences that their young people might encounter.

Secondly, will the expert group engage with online service providers—particularly social media—to ensure that we have a robust approach to learning in an online digital world?

I am very grateful for the member’s comments. Let me pick up on the two issues that she raised, the first of which was the involvement of families. There will be scope for families that have been affected by one of their members being either a victim or a perpetrator to have some input into the process. We are not specifying how that will be conducted, as that will be for the expert group to devise, together with the organisations that will support it in taking forward this work.

That leads to the member’s second point, on engaging with online service providers. We have not specified that the expert group must do so, but I think that it would be very difficult for the group to do its work without considering service providers and the role that they can play in helping to support young people who are dealing with these issues.

The member may be aware that the Scottish Government is already involved in the United Kingdom body that deals with online service providers. We continue to have input into that process at a UK level.

I have no doubt that Catherine Dyer and the expert group will want to consider the nature of their engagement with online service providers, as and when they consider it appropriate. There is no doubt that those providers have an important role to play in helping to address some of the concerns that are likely to be highlighted in the course of the expert group’s work.

I thank the cabinet secretary for the advance copy of the statement.

The issues that are addressed by the statement are complex and MSPs have increasingly raised concerns in the chamber over sexual offending involving children and young people. We have seen a rise in sexual offences committed by a child against a child in recent years, and I welcome the Solicitor General’s initiative in highlighting the consequences of that behaviour and today’s statement. I welcome Catherine Dyer as the chair of the expert group and I wish her well in the work ahead.

Will the cabinet secretary expand on the remit of the group? He says that there will be a particular focus on cyber-enabled offending. That is welcome, as it is a significant contributor to the increase in offences and it could be seen as an area that could be addressed with better education and information. However, it is also important that we focus on children and young people who display a greater degree of harmful sexual behaviour. Will the cabinet secretary say a bit more about what work the group will undertake in that area?

At the start of his statement, the cabinet secretary talked about how the whole-system approach to offending is working, with referrals down by 80 per cent. Why does he feel that that approach has not been as successful in the area of sexual offences?

I am grateful for Claire Baker’s welcome for the statement and the approach that we are taking in this very complex area, which is emerging quickly as technology develops. The group’s remit will be published today and I am happy to send a copy to the member. The document, which should be available in the Scottish Parliament information centre, sets out in broad terms the remit of the expert group. The remit is not limited to cyber; it will look at the wider issues, as I mentioned in my statement.

Claire Baker highlighted the issue of young people who may be exhibiting behaviours that are a matter of concern. It is important that the expert group will focus not just on cyber matters, but on the wider issue of young people as both victims and perpetrators of sexual crimes, including whether the measures that are in place are appropriate. A key part will be mapping what is in place at the moment, and looking at whether those arrangements are effective and where there are gaps that need to be addressed more effectively, such as picking up on such behaviour at an earlier stage and earlier intervention.

In her third point, the member raised issues around the success that we have had in tackling youth offending, in particular the reduction in the number of young people who are referred on offences grounds to the children’s reporter system. One issue from the research that was published back in September is the identification of those types of offences, because they often take place within a cyber environment, which is much more difficult to identify. We have a concern about whether young people have an understanding of the need to report those matters and also the way in which they are then investigated.

The response that we have had in the past around the whole-system approach has been more about a practical intervention. One area in which we need to get better is ensuring that young people are equipped with the skills to know what is unacceptable and to seek support and assistance. Some of the cyber-enabled sexual offences that we are finding are not as visible as some of the other behaviours among young people—that is part of the challenge that we will face in the future. For anyone who is a parent of young children and young people, it is not necessarily about a perpetrator coming into the house or an environment to have an impact on a child. That influence can be exerted through their phone or a computer in their bedroom or elsewhere at home. That is not as visible and provides greater challenges for our law enforcement agencies and those who could intervene at an early stage if we could identify where the issue starts to emerge.

I appreciate that this is a sensitive subject. I draw the cabinet secretary’s attention to the fact that there are 10 questions, if we can get through them.

Does the cabinet secretary agree that there is nothing inevitable about children and young people engaging in harmful sexual behaviour? Does he agree that the education that they receive on this issue should focus on more than just what is lawful and is not lawful, but on what is healthy, safe and respectful?

I agree that what is important is that we help to enable children and young people to have mutually respectful, responsible and confident relationships. A big part of the work that is being done as a result of the review of the PSE approach within schools is to look at how to make sure that it is embedded much more effectively.

Part of the challenge is ensuring that we have a much better understanding among those in our education system and our wider public services of the risks that young people are exposing themselves to, so that they can help to support young people in addressing some of those issues. They also help to support young people in understanding mutually respectful, confident and responsible relationships. What do such relationships look like in the cyber world, and how do we enable people to understand that and to have that confidence and responsibility? I agree with the member, and I think that an important part of the work that the expert group will take forward will be about how to embed that more effectively in our education system.

The cabinet secretary is quite right to say that the expert group will consider the implications of research and other relevant data. Will the group look at the processes of collecting that relevant data? That point was raised in the Education and Skills Committee when we looked at personal and social education, and it was suggested that perhaps the data was not always as accurate as it might be.

I suspect that the expert group will want to give consideration to that area. As I said, we want to take a preventative approach, and to do that effectively we need to ensure that the approach is also evidence based. Data is crucial to ensuring that a properly informed and evidence-based approach is taken, and I have no doubt that the expert group will want to give consideration to that.

I thank the cabinet secretary for giving me advance sight of his statement. Any steps that are taken to prevent sexual offending against children and young people are to be welcomed. I am sure that the cabinet secretary will agree that education has a key role to play in that.

The Equalities and Human Rights Committee, of which I am a member, recently carried out an inquiry into bullying and harassment in schools. I was particularly alarmed to hear evidence directly from young girls of sexual harassment and bullying, and of sexual shaming in schools. I was even more alarmed by the culture of acceptance among some pupils. Accurate recording of such incidents, support for victims and zero tolerance in our schools are all essential, as are training, support and guidance for all our teachers. Can the cabinet secretary give more detail of the specific steps that he will take to ensure that there is joint working across portfolios, and sharing of good practice, to counter the alarming evidence that we heard in committee?

I am aware of the work that has been done by that committee, which is helpful in shining a light on some of the issues around bullying. We are clear, as a Government, that we must take bullying seriously, and we expect our local authorities to ensure that they have appropriate measures in place in education to address those issues quickly when they arise. Early intervention is the key to preventing bullying from escalating. We expect all our local authorities to have anti-bullying strategies in place, and for those strategies to be effectively implemented in order to prevent that type of behaviour from developing.

The challenge is that the nature of bullying is changing, and the purpose for which some bullying is taking place is changing, as well. It is not just the bullying such as may traditionally have taken place in the playground or the school line, when I was at school. Bullying can now take place online, while the person is at home on their phone or on a computer. Part of the work that we are taking forward with the national action plan is to tackle such issues by equipping young people with the skills to manage and deal with them online.

It is important that we are also helping to educate parents, teachers and support staff to recognise that cyberspace can be an environment in which children are even more susceptible to bullying, and to learn what can be done to ensure that young people know that they need to report bullying as early as possible.

I have no doubt that the expert group will want to give some consideration to the existing arrangements that we have in place to deal with those issues, and to how those can be improved and developed.

As many members will be aware, this week is anti-bullying week. Bullying is something that too many of our young people still experience, and it may lead to some youngsters feeling pressured to take part in sexual activity that they may or may not realise could constitute a sexual offence. What efforts are being made to tackle bullying of all sorts in our schools? I remind members that I am the parliamentary liaison officer for the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills.

I am conscious that the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills is also in the chamber, so I had better ensure that I get his policy on bullying right. However, I know that, as a Government, we take a robust approach to tackling bullying. As I mentioned in my response to Mary Fee, we expect local authorities to have developed and implemented anti-bullying policies, which should be reviewed and updated regularly in consultation with parents and pupils. It is important that the policies also consider at local level bullying that takes place in cyberspace. That will be important going forward. I have no doubt that the expert group will want to consider the existing policy framework on bullying.

I thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of his statement. The Scottish Green Party welcomes the proposals in it.

I have a question about one small part of the expert group’s remit. The cabinet secretary said that it would not focus on adult perpetrators of sexual offences. The definition of “adult” can be from 16 years old to 18 years old. What regard will be given to that? Many adult offenders offended as juveniles. We want to capture as much information as possible.

That question specifically relates to research that was commissioned last year and published in September, which concerned young people rather than adult perpetrators.

The group will not consider the actions of, and areas relating to, perpetrators of sexual offences who are over 18. It will specifically examine the needs of children and young people as perpetrators and victims because there has been very significant growth in the area. To extend the remit further would lose that specific focus—in which we have seen growth over the past couple of years—and, in particular, on the cyber nature of the issue. The focus is specifically on that age group and, as I mentioned in my statement, the way in which we deal with adult perpetrators of sexual crimes is through our MAPPA and the other safeguards that we have in place.

Following efforts by my party, the Scottish Government has committed to increase the age of criminal responsibility. Serious sexual offences that are committed by people over the age of 12 should naturally be dealt with severely, but will the Government consider using the legislation on the age of criminal responsibility to ensure that children who commit minor sexual offences in their early teens as a result of their immaturity are not haunted by a criminal record of that nature for the rest of their life? Will it consider a limitation that will expunge such minor offences from their records after a period?

Alex Cole-Hamilton tempts me to pre-empt the expert group’s work on the issue. As I mentioned at several points in my statement, our key focus is on preventing young people from becoming involved in such activity in the first place. In doing that, we can reduce the number of perpetrators and, importantly, the number of victims. However, such actions have a range of consequences; for example, our prosecutors face dilemmas, as a result. That was a particular focus of the education summit that the Solicitor General for Scotland brought together, and which the Deputy First Minister addressed a number of weeks ago.

I have no doubt that the expert group will want to consider the issue that Alex Cole-Hamilton has raised, given the potential implications that prosecuting young people on such matters at a young age could have on a large part of their lives and their future opportunities.

The cabinet secretary confirmed that young people will be involved in the expert group’s work. Will there be a direct opportunity for young people who have been affected by sexual offending to engage with that work? If so, will their voices help to develop services that are designed to support the victims and perpetrators of such offences?

It is crucial that young people have an opportunity to participate in the process. As I set out in my statement, a number of youth organisations and organisations that work with young people will participate in the expert group.

Of course, there is a role for victims of sexual crimes to participate in the process, but that must be managed in such a way as to recognise confidentiality and to ensure that victims are confident about any participation that they may have. Such an approach has been facilitated in the past in other areas of policy: victims have been able to participate. I have no doubt that the expert group will want to engage with youth organisations to facilitate such engagement in a sensitive way that protects the anonymity of the victims of such crimes and the confidentiality that is necessary in dealing with them.

Regarding the welcome focus on prevention, can the cabinet secretary confirm whether the expert group will explore the option of taking the message directly into schools as, for example, the excellent play “The Balisong” does as part of the no knives, better lives programme that he referenced?

As I mentioned in my statement, one of the areas that I believe the expert group can consider is the work that we have taken forward on tackling violence in our schools and among young people. The no knives, better lives campaign is part of that, and the play “The Balisong”—which I hope Liam Kerr has had the opportunity to see—is an effective way of getting across the message to young people, alongside the work that we do with mentors on violence prevention and with Medics Against Violence. That model has proved to be effective, and there are lessons that can be learned about working with young people to tackle issues around sexual offences.

I apologise to Rona Mackay, but we have run out of time for questions.