Scottish Borders Council

Agenda item

Safer Communities - Safer Communities and Community Justice Manager - Graham Jones. (Copy attached.)

Minutes:

          MEMBER

          Councillor Nicol left the meeting during discussion of the following item.

 

7.1     Safer Communities

          There had been circulated copies of the Safer Communities Performance Report covering the period 1 April 2016 to 30 September 2016.  Mr Graham Jones referred to the Community Justice Act which was all about reducing reoffending and preventing people offending in the first place.  He had been in post for 2 weeks and was familiarising himself with statistics and reporting methods.   He then went on to highlight the key points in the report and it was noted that, in respect of domestic abuse, there had been an increase of 23 reported incidents of domestic abuse for the year to date in 2016/17 when compared to the same time period last year, which equated to a 5.4% increase.  There were 3 fewer reported sexual crimes related to domestic abuse in the year to date when compared to the same time period last year, this equated to a 37.5% decrease and it was expected that this figure would fluctuate during the year owing to historical reporting of sexual crimes.   In relation to referrals to the Domestic Abuse Advocacy Support Service there were 26 fewer referrals in the year to date when compared to the same time period in 2015/16 and it was noted that the Service Manager was looking at trends and would target agencies to find out why referrals had dropped.    There had been a decrease in the number of high risk domestic abuse cases discussed at MARAC.  There were 28 fewer children present in the home where domestic abuse incidents took place; this was a 15.5% reduction on the year to date when compared to the same period in 2015/16.   There was an increase in the number of homeless assessment presentations from 40 in the year to date for 2015/16 to 62 in 2016/17; this was a 4.7% increase against total presentations for the year to date.  There had been a small increase in the percentage of Anti-Social Behaviour incidents which were alcohol related in the second quarter of 2016/17 when compared to the same time period in 2015/16.   Although the percentage of alcohol related incidents was currently higher than last year it had been decreasing month on month since April. In regard to interventions following antisocial incidents in licensed premises 61 had been undertaken in the second quarter of 2016/17 bringing the total for the year to date to 130.    It was noted there were 199 more persons being monitored for anti-social behaviour when compared to the same period in 2015/16.  A presentation on driver behaviour would be considered later in the meeting.

 

7.2     On behalf of the Board, the Chairman thanked Inspector A. Hodges for all his work during his time with the Safer Communities Team and wished him all the best for the future.             Mr Higgs referred to the recruitment of ex-offenders by Virgin Trains and asked if anything similar was being undertaken in the Scottish Borders.   Mr Jones advised there were a number of components of the community justice plan. At the moment the plan was moving forward through the Community Planning Partnership and after the Strategic Board there would be a 3 month period of public consultation.   Mr Jones advised the focus of the plan was to break the cycle of offending.   The Chairman asked for a presentation on community justice to be heard at a future meeting to allow for a better understanding of the Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016.  

 

          DECISION

          (a)          NOTED the report.

          (b)          AGREED that a presentation on the Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 be heard at a future meeting of the Board, to be determined by the Chairman.

 

 

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