Current justice funding model unsustainable: MSP report
Scotland's criminal justice sector urgently needs a new funding model to avoid a crisis situation, Holyrood's Criminal Justice Committee declared today in its pre-budget report to Justice Secretary Angela Constance.
The MSPs conclude that the funding situation facing the sector is "unsustainable" and a new approach must be adopted, based on long-term wholesale reform rather than the current approach of small uplifts each year to prop up the sector.
While recognising the financial challenges across the Scottish budget, they say the sector cannot withstand another year of small incremental investment and a business-as-usual approach.
The report highlights evidence of an increasingly precarious financial position across the sector, which faces a number of financial challenges, including high inflation and meeting pay awards.
Evidence was heard from both the police and fire and rescue services that extra investment must be found if they are to maintain current staffing numbers.
However the committee is most concerned by the pressure on capital spending budgets, with critical projects such as the replacement of HMP Barlinnie, investment in decontamination facilities in fire stations, and the rollout of body worn video cameras to police officers all facing delays or uncertainty.
Difficult cost pressures impacting courts, prosecution services, prisons and the community justice sector are also highlighted. Funding pressures mean the prison services’ throughcare system, which is vital to any efforts to prepare prisoners for release and reduce the likelihood of reoffending, cannot be kept in operation.
Alarm is also expressed that debates on how many people are send to prison and the need for community based alternatives to incarceration have been going on for years, but without any discernible actions to tackle this issue, because they are not available across all of Scotland.
In addition, police officers are having to spend a disproportionate amount of time dealing with people with mental health conditions or waiting around in courtrooms to give evidence, with limited tangible progress made to resolve these matters.
The report calls for investment in new co-located services for police and fire and rescue services, which would allow older, more costly stations to close, yielding savings over the longer term.
It concludes that the time for reform is now and that a spend-to-save model should be implemented which ensures the justice sector can continue to deliver services effectively and meet the demands placed upon it.
The MSPs state: "The committee believes it is time to make the police, fire and rescue services, prisons, prosecution services and the courts and community justice system fiscally sustainable whilst maintaining public safety and the delivery of justice services. The Scottish Government and others through its Justice Board should identify and implement what the Cabinet Secretary herself recognises are spend-to-save reforms. With some upfront investment, such reforms should yield cost savings over the longer term and have clear timescales."
Committee convener Audrey Nicoll MSP commented: "Year on year we are seeing the increasing pressure on services in the justice sector and the difficult decisions organisations are having to make in order to continue to deliver.
"We recognise the twin pressures of high inflation and pay awards, but it feels like we’ve reached a critical point and that increasingly there are fewer and fewer savings which can be made without a detrimental impact on services.
"Throughout our scrutiny it has become clear that the current model is unsustainable and that marginal increases in budgets each year are no longer sufficient."
Yesterday, Finance Secretary Shona Robison said the public sector workforce would have to shrink due to funding pressures from tight budgets and inflation-driven pay deals.