Tagging powers not being used

Intensive monitoring and support orders aimed at persistent youth offenders have only been used four times

News, 11 August 2005

Local authorities have so far tagged only four under-16-year-olds as part of a scheme to tackle serious young offenders.

Although seven of Scotland's councils have the power to use Intensive Support and Monitoring (ISM) orders, only three - Edinburgh, Glasgow and Moray - have used their powers under the pilot scheme to their full extent.

The Scottish Executive's pilot introduced the new measure for persistent troublemakers in April and was expected to involve between 90 and 200 young people.

However, although only four children have been tagged (with two of them repeatedly breaching their orders by reoffending and one child being sent to a secure accommodation unit), around 90 children are going through the intensive support element of the package. This involves at least 15 hours of direct contact with the youngsters a week and preliminary research shows that these children have reduced their offending by roughly 50 per cent.

Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson has warned the seven local authorities involved in the pilot that they must use electronic monitoring. The councils received funding totalling £7million until 2006 for the project.

She commented that evidence from England and Wales had shown that tagging, used together with appropriate support, would help tackle persistent young offenders.

In addition, although antisocial behaviour orders were introduced for under-16s in October last year, no local authority has used them.

The introduction had caused controversy as it was seen as a possible contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights.