Response to interpellation 2022/23:76 on preventive measures against organized crime
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate regarding preventive measures against organized crime focuses on the social services' role in preventing young people from being recruited into gangs. M argues that the Social Services Act needs to be reformed to enable a preventive perspective and early interventions 1. The government prioritizes strengthening parental responsibility through parenting support, extending subsidies for placement in youth homes, and establishing a crisis social service 1. M emphasizes that the Tidö Agreement contains several points on preventive work and criticizes S for proposing large-scale investments in opposition without having implemented them in a government position 2. S argues that the government's budget lacks sufficient funds for social services and that instead, preventive work should be prioritized over tax cuts for high-income earners 3. S believes that the government's budget implies cuts in school and welfare, which hinders the work of preparing young people for a life outside the gangs 3.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! Gustaf Lantz has asked me what measures I intend to take to prevent young people from taking the step into criminal gangs.
I want to emphasize initially that crime prevention work is of the utmost importance for the government. Social services have a central role in the work of preventing and hindering children and young people from being drawn into crime.
The current Social Services Act is based in large parts on the 1980 Social Services Act. Society has changed since then. This also applies to the societal challenges we see today that did not exist in the same way back then, for example regarding segregation, insecurity in vulnerable areas and gang crime. New challenges require new solutions, and to enable that, the Social Services Act needs to be reformed.
The report Sustainable Social Services - A New Social Services Act (SOU 2020:47) is currently being prepared within the Government Offices. The report contains important proposals on how the social services can achieve a shift in perspective from reactive exercise of authority to more preventive work and early interventions. There are also proposals that the social services' activities shall be based on the best available knowledge of what actually works.
Guardians whose children risk committing crimes, or who have already embarked on a criminal path, need to be involved in order to break such a development. Strengthening parenting skills and parental responsibility is therefore an important priority for the government. In the budget bill for 2023, a total of 400 million kronor was therefore allocated annually to strengthen and increase access to parenting support. The government also intends to review various possibilities to strengthen parental responsibility and to influence parents who do not take their parental responsibility.
All children and young people who need a placement according to the Act (1990:52) with special provisions on the care of young people shall also receive it. For some young people, a placement at a special youth home can be a possible way to prevent crime. In the budget bill for 2023, the government therefore proposed an extension of the subsidy of the municipalities' costs for placement at the National Board for Institutional Care, Sis.
The Government also intends to take measures to establish a crisis social duty officer who shall provide support to the social services in their work to counteract youth crime.
For successful crime prevention work, close cooperation is required between, for example, social services, schools, and the police. It has been repeatedly highlighted that the regulatory framework regarding secrecy needs to be reviewed to improve the conditions for the authorities' cooperation. Investigations are currently underway regarding this. There is also an investigation regarding an arrangement with youth crime boards according to a Danish model. The purpose is to achieve clearer measures from society when children and young people have entered a criminal path, as well as to enable earlier and coordinated interventions to prevent continued crime.
Gustaf Lantz (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer. I truly appreciate the Minister's commitment to these issues. I do not believe that anyone who has sat on the Social Affairs Committee or who is now watching this debate has missed the great heart that the Minister has for these pressing issues.
It is good that the government is now fulfilling initiatives from the Social Democratic government. It is also good with the supplements in the budget that the government makes and which the Social Democrats support and match in their budget motion.
But at the same time, the Minister's answer makes me think of some friends of the family who were going out to vacation on a tandem bicycle. After the first stop, the man pedaled away again. He pedaled and pedaled. After two miles, he looked back and saw that the seat behind was empty.
I believe that the Minister's big problem is that she does not have the government behind her in these issues. She pushes forward, but the government stands aside. Kristersson and Svantesson opt out of the preventive work every time it really matters.
Most recently, a tax cut for those with the highest incomes was prioritized. The price tag landed somewhere around 10 billion in lost tax revenue. It resulted in a 1,400 kronor tax cut for us members of parliament, but nothing for those who earn under 30,000 kronor. It is deeply unfair in the times we are in.
Despite everything, some crumbs remained for the crime prevention work that the social services are to carry out across the country. It became 10 million for the municipalities to share. We Social Democrats allocated an extra half a billion in our budget proposal. The scale is therefore 1:50. The difference between these investments is the same as if one places Johan Pehrson with an open umbrella next to Uppsala Cathedral and compares the length - it is the same proportion.
An individual person in southern Sweden could have been able to pay what Uppsala receives as a municipality three times over to strengthen social services if he or she had waived the electricity support from the government.
This is a trivial investment in the social services in a serious situation, when there are young people shooting young people, children who are shooters, passers-by who are hit, and now also relatives who are shot. When young people are queuing to join the gangs, we need to invest significantly more. For every krona we spend on more police, at least one krona must be spent on preventive work. Our party can promise this and match it in our budget motions. But the government cannot do that in its sharp budget, because the will does not exist within the government as a whole.
My supplementary question is: What does the Minister for Social Services think Uppsala should be able to do with the approximately 250,000 SEK that is now being added to the social services - is there anything tangible that could be done so that young people do not take the step into the gangs?
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! I am very pleased that the member expresses himself in such warm words. I appreciate that immensely. I am also very pleased that the member is so skilled in units of length. Unfortunately, he is a bit less skilled in the history of how the crime prevention work has looked, not least in the Social Affairs Committee during the last five years. But I will gladly inform the member about this.
The Tidö Agreement governs the work that the government performs. I can inform the member that there are no fewer than 22 points in the Tidö Agreement that deal specifically with preventive work. It is one of the government's most prioritized measures, because we are very well aware that we must work at both ends.
There is an extremely serious and escalating gang crime, which the member addresses in a clear way in their interpellation. We will never get to grips with this crime if we do not stop the recruitment at the other end. We know that unfortunately it is all too common that young people - as young as ten years old - are recruited directly into these criminal networks.
I also wish that the member had spoken a little bit with his colleagues, who tried to have interpellation debates with me a few weeks ago. They also brought up these 10 million and described how the Social Democratic Party had pondered and pondered how they should suffice for 290 municipalities. One had really sat in one's chamber and pondered. I described then, and describe now, that I actually thought it was quite obvious. It also stands very clearly in the budget that this is intended to build up a preventive measure which, in a central measure, shall reach out to all our social services.
The social services have for a long time asked for more support and help in order to be able to work preventatively, Madam Speaker. One thing they have asked for is a new Social Services Act that was not written for and does not function in a society that did not quite look like the society it does today, and we are in the process of drafting that Social Services Act. The investigation into this came in 2020, and it is a couple of years ago, to put it mildly – but the previous government was unable to draft the law.
I will perhaps be cautious in describing what may have been the problems for the former minister and the former government, but it may possibly have some connection to the fact that the investigator received instructions that it must not be cost-driving. As the member and everyone understands, this imposes certain limitations when one needs to expand a social service so that it functions with the challenges that exist today.
Against that background, the Social Democrats' and the member's budget initiatives in opposition become somewhat strange. One was unable to make those initiatives or did not have that insight in a government position, and that lasted for eight years. But it is also the case that one sends very clear signals about what one considers needs to be done and what interventions are needed if one adds a directive to an investigator that something must not be cost-driving.
With all due respect: To propose large-scale investments when sitting in opposition but failing to deliver those investments when in a position of government nevertheless implies a certain lack of credibility.
Gustaf Lantz (S)
Madam Speaker! We can gladly discuss what should have been done and what has been done historically. We can discuss the major investments in welfare that the previous government made, but what I believe the voters are interested in is the future. We are now presenting budget proposals, and the government is presenting its budget – which becomes reality. Preventive work is not included there.
Here, there is an opportunity to actually allocate funds in this important issue which is completely decisive for Sweden's future. I believe the voters want to see a proactive government. The Minister sounds like a good social democrat when she talks about how important it is to invest both in police, prosecution of those who commit the crimes and sensible punishments, and in stopping the recruitment. It is the same thing we hear from the police. Now, one has an excellent opportunity to, here in our time and just now, forgo a substantial tax cut for those with the absolute highest incomes and instead ensure that social services, which do the work at the periphery, are strengthened.
It could have made a big difference if the Social Democratic budget had been the one that became reality in the municipalities; half a billion would have been very valuable in that work. Now, unfortunately, that will not be the case.
Madam Speaker! It is furthermore unfortunately worse than that. It is not only the special investments in social services that have a decisive significance for whether we can equip young people for an independent and good life away from the gangs, but it is also about how the welfare system functions otherwise. It is about the school, it is about BUP, and it is about the labor market.
Looking at the budget that the government has presented, we see that they are cutting back on exactly these things. They are allocating 6 billion kronor to the municipalities, which is far from what SKR has demanded. In the Social Democratic budget bill, 12 billion kronor were allocated, i.e., double.
I think that all of this taken together makes one feel anxious about the future. If we are to be able to turn this around, society must be strong in both parts, as the Minister said. We must have a strong police force, good laws and good tools for the police to investigate crimes, but we must also have a powerful social service. And now the government has actually missed an excellent opportunity to strengthen the social service. They have missed an excellent chance to give the municipalities more money so that they can generally manage the challenges that will come in a tough time.
We actually risk both layoffs and cuts in the municipal sector. For many young people, the municipal sector is a place where good help and good support can be provided in situations where they might not have any protective factors in their own family.
Much we are, as we have said, in agreement about, for example this with helping the families. I really look forward to seeing those investments. In Uppsala, I have myself seen what family support can mean; it is a fantastic activity that, in combination with a strong school and good investments in social services, can make a big difference. But I believe the whole is needed - the whole society's power - if we are to be able to tackle this challenge.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.