Young People (Scotland) (Hansard, 2 April 1985)

§ Mr. Malcolm Bruce (Gordon)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make increased provision of facilities for, and to extend legal and other rights presently available to young people in Scotland and for connected purposes. As you, Mr. Speaker, and hon. Members will be aware, this is International Youth Year, and the Bill that I seek leave to introduce today is one of a number of Bills introduced by Liberal Members specifically for International Youth Year. While the Bill specifically relates to young people in Scotland, it has implications for the whole of the United Kingdom.

This Bill and other Bills are necessary if we are to honour our obligations to young people, because young people are particularly badly affected by the difficult times in which we live. Forty per cent. of the unemployed—150,000 people in Scotland—are under the age of 25. The lack of suitable opportunities for young people makes starting out in adult life in 1985 much more difficult than it has been for many decades. For that reason, I believe that we urgently need a Minister with specific responsibility for youth. At the Scottish Office also, we need a Minister with specific responsibility to protect and promote the interests of young people.

I suggest that the first priority is to give young people a guarantee that between the ages of 16 and 19 they will have a job or training leading to the acquisition of appropriate skills or further education. This means that training schemes must be devised to meet real needs. They must be not merely a means of creatively massaging unemployment figures. The financial support for young people continuing in full-time education should be geared in such a way that no young person who is likely to benefit from further training or further education should be denied that opportunity for financial reasons.

The Bill would seek to ensure that young people are properly consulted in the areas of training and education that affect them. They should be represented, for example, on youth training scheme committees, school and college councils, and, indeed, on education committees, and they should be more fully consulted in the running and curriculum development of colleges and universities.

While the first priority is the acquisition of skills leading to employment, which is of major importance, a suitable place in which to live is also crucial to young people starting out in life. Changes in process at the moment—indeed, they are going through the House this week—will cut board and lodging allowances in a way which will have a particularly damaging effect on young people. Variations in accommodation costs fail to take full account of different local circumstances. I believe that this could lead to the break-up of families. It may mean that young people leave home and often will be unable to go back because they are not reconciled with their parents. This will increase the problem of homelessness among young people.

Indeed, I am advised that the stop-over short stay hostel for young people in Edinburgh, ironically enough located in the constituency of the hon. Member for Edinburgh, South (Mr. Ancram), the Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, is under threat of closure as a direct result of the measure currently going through the House, and initiatives to bring in similar hostels in other parts of Scotland could 1089 now founder. The Bill would seek to ensure that such hostels would be protected from the damaging effect of catch-all changes which, although they may not have been designed deliberately to have that effect, will do so because there is no Minister with specific responsibility for young people.

There is also evidence that these changes could lead directly to the eviction of young people in other kinds of accommodation that they can no longer afford. This is likely to be true particularly in high-priced areas such as Aberdeen, which I represent.

I think that many hon. Members will agree that young couples, particularly those who are unemployed or on low wages, find it difficult to start their lives together when accommodation is inadequate and jobs are scarce. They do not have the means, and the local authorities are unable to provide them with adequate housing.

It is little wonder that there has been a growth in social problems relating to young people. As I am sure all hon. Members are aware, there have been increases in drug and alcohol abuse. In Scotland, an alarming number of suicides and attempted suicides have occurred at Glenochil young offenders institution. While the regime has been cleared by the inspector of prisons, I think it is fair to say that we need to consider whether referring young people to these institutions is correct and whether, in taking some of the initiatives that the Bill would allow, we might have some chance to deal with these problems in a way that would not lead to suicides and suicide attempts.

There are a number of areas, I am proud to say, being a Scottish Member, where we in Scotland are more progressive than are other parts of the United Kingdom. These areas do not exclusively affect young people, though most of them affect them substantially, and I will give some examples.

In recent years the Scottish licensing laws have been liberalised, to general benefit. The effect has been to improve the quality of Scottish pubs and hotels, to reduce the problems of street drunkenness and to provide suitable places where youngsters over the age of 18 can go, rather than, as was the case before, having to hang around street corners or being obliged to drink and then to be turned out on to the streets at 10 o'clock at night.

One of the benefits of the Criminal Justice Act was the banning of alcohol from football grounds, a provision which English Ministers now seem to wish to implement. That measure has reduced hooliganism problems, as have developments such as all-seat, all-covered stands at Aberdeen football club's ground.

The banning of the England-Scotland match at Wembley suggests that the Prime Minister is confusing 1090 Millwall with Hadrian's Wall. Had she really considered what was happening, she would have realised that the problem exists much more in England than in Scotland. That sort of decision could only have been carried out by a Prime Minister who, apart from trips abroad, has left her home counties dugout only once in the last six months, and then only for a day trip to Newcastle.

Children's panels in Scotland have been a successful innovation. They have given young people and their parents support when youngsters have got into trouble. Hon. Members representing English constituencies may wish to see such panels introduced south of the border. The innovation has, however, been partly undermined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, which goes against the spirit of children's panels by suggesting that appearing before a panel constitutes an offence, which is contrary to the spirit of the panel idea.

Representing a constituency in Aberdeenshire, I feel it appropriate, while speaking of areas where we in Scotland are progressive, to refer to the provision of free contraceptive advice clinics, which were pioneered in the city of Aberdeen. The recent ruling of the House of Lords in the Victoria Gillick case does not apply to Scotland, although, regrettably, many young people believe that it does. It is all very well for parents who have a good relationship with their children, as Mrs. Gillick clearly believes she has, but I believe that what has occurred in that respect will be a tragedy for many young people, at least in England and Wales, who do not get on with their parents and who, because of the ruling, will be denied the advice that they need.

My Bill seeks to ensure that the interests of young people in Scotland are not put at risk by any attempt to bring us into line with English rulings. It seeks to create a climate in which the members of older generations accept their responsibility towards young people in terms of giving them the best opportunities. In that area, we are falling down badly. My Bill seeks to do that in a way that shows proper respect for the views of young people, giving them a chance to participate in decisions that affect them.