DUNDEE WILL be the lead council for the Tayside Criminal Justice Authority, which is aimed at cutting the high rate of re-offending, writes Brian Allison, local government reporter.

Eight criminal justice authorities have been set up to cover Scotland, with Dundee City, Angus and Perth and Kinross councils forming one body.

From this month the CJAs will shadow criminal justice arrangements and then take over fully in a year.

Establishing the authorities is viewed as the widest ranging reform of criminal justice in Scotland for half a century and is designed to reduce re-offending.

Six out of 10 offenders are reconvicted within two years of being released from prison.

Among the provisions of the legislation that created the CJAs is a strengthening of the arrangements for supervising sex offenders.

The responsibilities of the authorities will include:

Preparing an area plan for reducing re-offending.

Monitoring the performance of councils and the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) in complying with the plan and co-operating with each other.

Promoting good practice, issuing direction to local authorities and making recommendations to the SPS if performance is assessed as unsatisfactory.

CJAs will be overseen by a national advisory board, chaired by the Scottish Justice Minister, which will develop common objectives and a national strategy.

Dundee’s social work director Alan Baird has been invited to be a member of the national advisory board.

Mr Baird said it had been agreed with the other partners that Dundee would be the host council for Tayside in the shadow year.

Representation on the authority will consist of two elected members from each of the three constituent councils.

Initially it was suggested that the Tayside councils be bundled in with Fife, Stirling, Clackmannan and Falkirk, or be part of an area taking in Edinburgh, the Lothians and the Borders but neither of those was favoured by the Tayside and Fife councils.