Response to interpellation 2023/24:223 on reduced funding for crime prevention measures in vulnerable areas
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 L argues that the government is implementing a reorganization of justice policy with increased resources to the justice system and more efficient tools for authorities 1. L emphasizes that the government is investing in schools, social services, and parenting support to prevent crime 1. L prioritizes school social teams and special teachers to increase attendance and results in school 2. L argues that the school must return to the basics by removing harmful digitalization experiments 3. L argues that social services need tools to act early against children who are drawn into gangs 3. L emphasizes that they have 330 million for school social teams and projects 4. 5 S argues that the government is cutting targeted interventions in vulnerable areas by 170 million SEK annually 5. S claims that the government is putting welfare on a starvation diet 5 6. S argues that the government chooses to lower the tax on plastic bags and snus instead of investing in school 6. 2 L argues that the Social Democrats always have more resources in their budget 2 3. 7 S argues that the cut in the targeted state grant to municipalities with vulnerable areas provides poorer conditions to fight gangs and is a terrible prioritization 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Madam Speaker! Teresa Carvalho has asked me why I and the government are reducing the funding for preventive measures in municipalities with vulnerable areas in the middle of the national gang violence crisis that our country is currently experiencing.
Organized crime threatens the free and open society. The government is therefore implementing a reorganization of the criminal justice policy with increased resources to the judiciary and more effective tools for the law enforcement agencies. We are also taking a holistic approach to juvenile delinquency with new, earlier, and clearer preventive measures. With proposals in this year's budget as well as decisions according to last year's budget, 2.8 billion SEK will be added during 2024 for precisely broad preventive measures across the board. In addition to the investment in preventive measures against gang crime, it concerns measures aimed at social services, parents, schools, and sports and leisure activities.
This summer, a new law on the municipalities' responsibility for crime prevention work entered into force. By reason of the new law, the municipalities are compensated according to the municipal financing principle, and the municipalities also have the opportunity to participate in a new state grant distributed by the Crime Prevention Council. Social services have a central role in the work to prevent and stop children and young people from becoming involved in crime. The Government is preparing a new Social Services Act which is to be presented next year. Furthermore, in order to enable the reform, the Government has proposed, among other things, a special competence and staffing initiative for the social services' transition to working specifically on prevention.
The government is also investing in parenting support combined with increased parental responsibility. The government has allocated 400 million kronor to strengthen parenting support. To, among other things, strengthen parental responsibility, an investigation shall also propose an arrangement that gives the social welfare committee the possibility to decide on open interventions for guardians without their consent. The government is also investing funds for expanded home visit programs in vulnerable areas. Families with children in the risk zone shall receive better, clearer, and earlier help from society.
A good education is one of the most important protective factors against exclusion and crime, but far too many students do not receive access to effective support measures in time. Therefore, the government is carrying out a large state grant initiative with the aim of increasing access to special education teachers in schools and strengthening the possibility for principals to establish special teaching groups. In the budget bill for 2024, the government has proposed resources to make it more attractive to work at the most demanding schools and to give schools better conditions to implement early support measures.
But for students to achieve the goals of the education, they need to be in school. The Government is therefore implementing an initiative on school social teams, where the school and social services cooperate to increase students' attendance in school and create a calm and safe working environment. The Government is also acting to enable a more efficient exchange of information between the school, social services, and the police.
In response to the question, I would like to conclude by emphasizing that the government has some of the largest appropriations for schools in 20 years. Furthermore, a historic investment is being carried out across the entire social services. Teresa Carvalho and I seem to have different views on the matter.
Teresa Carvalho (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Johan Pehrson, for the answer! It was interesting. I almost have to repeat those last sentences, because I jumped a bit when I heard them: "In response to the question, I would like to conclude by underlining that the government has some of the largest appropriations to the school in 20 years. Furthermore, a historic investment is being carried out across the entire social service. Teresa Carvalho and I seem to see differently on the question."
Yes, we obviously see things differently on the issue. We obviously see things differently on the issue of what the consequences will be of the government now cutting back on the targeted interventions in vulnerable areas to break the new recruitment to the gangs. We obviously also see things differently on how the government is now treating the welfare. We obviously see things differently on whether what is now happening are historical investments or a slimming-down course.
Madam Speaker! The Social Democratic-led government tasked Socialstyrelsen in 2021 with allocating 250 million kronor annually to municipalities with vulnerable areas in order to reduce the risk of young people being drawn into gang crime. The money has been used for improved and deepened cooperation between school, police, and social services, and for hiring more field assistants, family counselors, and other important outreach activities.
Now the SD government chooses to cut this grant from 250 to 80 million kronor annually. It is therefore a cut of 170 million kronor every year. Thus, they have faced the municipalities with a very difficult choice. Either they maintain the important work of combating gang crime and then have to take important resources from other welfare activities that are already on their knees, or they have to reduce the important measures despite the fact that we are in a national state of emergency when it comes to gang crime.
I have asked the question to Johan Pehrson, who is the responsible minister for the cuts: Why does one choose to do this in this incredibly difficult situation? I have not received any answer. Perhaps Johan Pehrson thinks it is a bit embarrassing that he and the Sverigedemokraterna are doing this in this way right now, because normally we hear him talk about other things.
It almost sounds like Johan Pehrson thinks that the government and the Social Democrats are spending as much money on crime prevention work but in slightly different budget items. Let me be clear that is not the case. We Social Democrats spend more money on schools and social services. What is the difference between our budget alternatives is not the school social teams that Johan Pehrson talks about. We are in complete agreement on those. The difference is that Johan Pehrson puts welfare on a starvation diet and cuts back on the targeted state grants that are available to municipalities with vulnerable areas in order to break the new recruitment.
I understand that one does not always get their way straight through in a coalition cooperation – God knows. Let me then pose the question like this: Are the Liberals and the Sweden Democrats in agreement on cutting back on the work to break the new recruitment to the gangs in this situation? Is there an agreement that this is a reasonable measure to take now that we are leaving behind an autumn where children have murdered children and gang crime has escalated?
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Madam Speaker! It is unusual for everyone who cooperates to agree on everything. On the other hand, I am sober enough to realize that it requires a relationship with parliamentary realities. I see, for example, that the Social Democrats' cooperation partner Miljöpartiet has entered the chamber. That pleases me, because you have an alternative together if you are to get anywhere. Now you have alternatives that branch out like a Christmas tree that starts to shed too early. I hope, Madam Speaker, that your Christmas trees do not do that.
It is correct that we are moving resources and investing more in ordinary activities within the school and within social services, away from the projects that I ultimately decide on at the ministry. We know that 250 million for school social teams yields a good result. We know what it has done, for example, at Järvafältet here in Stockholm, to lift school results. This is the absolute best and most important vaccine against young people being drawn into gang criminality: presence and results in school.
Then this is not enough, and other initiatives in schools are required. It is about more special education teachers and smaller teaching groups. It is a help for girls who might otherwise not even come to school because they feel unwell. It is a help for boys who have a V8 in their chest that rumbles and causes them to ruin things for themselves and for other students. These students can get help in a smaller teaching group with a good special education teacher to then return to the class and begin their journey toward their own freedom and their own life opportunities.
The PISA results arrived this week. They are plummeting in terms of reading and mathematics. We must break the development we have seen over the last eight years to get the results up again. There is nothing that can keep these young people away from risks of misery, where they can harm themselves and others and, in the worst case, kill someone or be killed themselves, if they do not succeed in school.
It is correct that it has been 250 million, and since then, we have committed 80, 150, and 150 over this mandate period for the projects that I will lead. It is about instructing the authorities to try to use them in the most efficient possible way to achieve results. We prioritize school social teams, because we know that they make a difference. It has been proven, not least in, for example, Järvafältet in Stockholm.
Madam Speaker! In conclusion, I note that the Social Democrats always have more resources in their budget. They view differently how they should obtain them. In opposition, one can come forward with that one should take over state banks and run them with lower interest rates and present proposals to take on individual sectors that one currently thinks are making too large profits. It is a classic socialist approach.
We believe more in broadening competition and increasing the power of individual people to choose the institutions on the financial market, for example banks, which both provide better interest rates to those of us who have little savings capital and the lowest possible interest to those people who need to borrow money for their home.
Teresa Carvalho (S)
Madam Speaker! We Social Democrats have the same budget framework to work within. But it is true that we prioritize in a completely different way than Johan Pehrson and his SD government do.
We do not choose to lower the tax on plastic bags and snus in a situation where we need to break the recruitment to the gangs and invest in the school. We are obviously capable of doing both. We are putting more money into the school and social services, but we are also not cutting back on the targeted measures that are now needed more than ever to break the recruitment to the gangs in the vulnerable areas.
But Johan Pehrson cannot manage to do both. It is completely obvious that he does not want to talk about the cut. Johan Pehrson is, however, responsible for the fact that in this situation he chooses to cut back on the crime-preventive work that exists today in the municipalities. It shall therefore not exist to the same extent next year, because Johan Pehrson chooses instead to lower the tax on plastic bags and snus.
Right now, Johan Pehrson and his colleagues in the SD government are cutting the important state grants that have gone towards hiring more field assistants, towards deepening cooperation between the police, the school, and social services, towards family counseling, and towards other important things needed to keep young guys on the right track.
I still have not received any answer as to why this is being done, but I note that Johan Pehrson would prefer to talk about something else. I could have met that by talking about the other policies that the SD-government pursues, which will fuel segregation and will hardly make it easier to break the new recruitment. But now it was specifically this state grant that I wanted to debate.
Johan Pehrson is happy to speak about the need for investments in schools, and I completely agree with him on that. That is also the reason why we invest in schools in our budget alternative. But when I listen to Johan Pehrson, I become curious. I have noted that the Minister makes many study visits. He may have even been on a study visit to some school in his own home municipality, Örebro. Which school in Örebro is it that has received all these historical funds from Johan Pehrson and Lotta Edholm?
In my own home municipality, Norrköping, the Tidö parties also rule. There, I can say, they are now cutting back on both the school and social services - and also other important welfare activities, for that matter. It is in no way a guarantee that the Liberals are holding the chairmanship in the committee. Right now, they are cutting back. This will not facilitate my home municipality's work in breaking the new recruitment to the gangs. Unfortunately, my home municipality has been hit hard this summer and autumn by fatal shootings and gang-related settlements.
I am completely convinced that we both want to reverse this development. I do not distrust the minister's ambitions in any way. But I would wish that he saw that it will become more difficult to achieve that result when one forces the municipalities to choose between important interventions to keep young guys on the right track and other important welfare activities that the municipalities also need to carry out to take care of our elderly, our children, and our roads.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Madam Speaker! No, I do not distrust any commitment either. However, one must take responsibility for the whole in a government position. The Socialdemokraterna do not need to do that in Norrköping because it is others who are in power.
The Social Democrats in Örebro, who were just mentioned, are sitting on the lap of the Moderates – or the Moderates are sitting on the lap of the Social Democrats – and are governing to make the priorities that are necessary in difficult times and, in the long term, build the foundation for a strong and functioning welfare where, among other things, the school and social services are important. In Örebro, one can see how the Social Democrats prioritize. There is more to be desired there. In a time when the school should be held first, investments and initiatives are being made that one thinks could step back. It is not only in Kiruna that strange swimming halls are being built for billions of kronor. It is a matter of putting the children first.
But let us leave this with talking about which of us is best and always has more money. It usually is so: If one is in opposition, one also has more money. The Riksdag's investigation service can surely show this by comparing the Socialdemokraterna and the Liberalerna 50 years back.
What should the content in school be for the children to manage it? We know that it is about going back to the basics: reading, arithmetic, writing. We must ensure that we get all these harmful digitalization experiments out of the school from small children.
It is a matter of managing the social services' important work on the front line. In the first line of the social services—in Norrköping or in my own home municipality Örebro, regardless of who is in power—it requires both police who can intervene and a social service that can be active and act early and clearly. That is why we are now transforming the Swedish social services in order to be able to catch the problems early. When I am on my study visits, Madam Speaker, I hear about children who are eight, nine, and ten years old who are being sucked into the gangs. In that case, it doesn't matter how many social service workers there are if one also does not have the tools to be able to act. If one can stop ten kids in their teens instead of letting them roam free and undisturbed because consent has been required from parents who unfortunately are obviously somewhat dysfunctional—we must help them too—is it better than them being part of gang crime at fifteen and already having shot someone or been shot. That is also important.
It is also good if the police and the school can talk to each other. Then it is good if there are even more projects to apply for. In the choice between allocating resources to school social teams permanently and just letting them be something for municipalities to come up with themselves because they are so damn good, we choose to make this investment. I mean that this is strongly preventive. Then we still have resources left for projects.
Many of the projects that were run under the Social Democratic government and are now being evaluated have indeed been good. But it has often been precisely school social teams. Now we are focusing 250 million just on this.
Teresa Carvalho (S)
Madam Speaker! Johan Pehrson is trying to convince himself, I assume, that it probably doesn't matter all that much that one cuts back on the targeted state grants available to municipalities with vulnerable areas to break the new recruitment to gang crime. Everyone else can probably see that it will give these municipalities poorer conditions to fight the gangs. In a typical Johan Pehrson manner, the minister tries to mix up the cards and talk about something other than what this debate is about, namely how we are to counteract gang crime in the vulnerable areas.
Madam Speaker! It doesn't matter which calculator Johan Pehrson takes out. It will show the same thing, namely that the SD-led government is not doing what is required to break the new recruitment to the gangs. That Johan Pehrson, together with the Sweden Democrats, in this situation chooses to cut this state grant is a completely crazy prioritization. It is a pity that the Minister at all cannot acknowledge that it is at least very poor timing.
It is nothing less than a catastrophe that honest citizens wake up every week to new war-like reports following last night's new shootings and explosions. Every child who falls victim to the gangs' heinous world is a tragedy. That the government in this situation, when we are just about to leave behind an autumn that is unparalleled, chooses to cut the state grant that has finally allowed the municipalities to get functioning operations running is astounding. It is a terrible prioritization. It is not enough, Johan Pehrson.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Madam Speaker! My vision is that we should be able to learn to calculate certain basic figures without calculators. I know that Teresa Carvalho can do it. She is very good at mathematics, I want to emphasize. I do not need to check any grades there, Madam Speaker.
But if you have 80 million for projects next year, 150 million the year after, and 150 million the year after that, it adds up to 380 million to begin with. You can almost do that in your head without calculating by hand. Next year you have 250 million for school social teams, which is the core and most important part, and what you have seen has worked well of what has been projects. Is it something the social services tell me when I am out - I almost know that you hear the same message, and perhaps even Madam Speaker when she is out on a visit - is it: Make sure it becomes line activity and that you work long-term and persistently, and give us new tools to be able to act earlier and more clearly!
To summarize: It is correct; 80 million for projects and 250 million directed to school social teams gives me 330 million through quick mental arithmetic. We can add efforts so that young people get access to leisure activities and investments in the most vulnerable schools. When we summarize this, I understand that the Social Democrats must say that things are crazy and that it is catastrophic.
Yes, it is a very serious situation. But reflection on what has brought us here should be pursued until the Christmas mulled wine.
(THIRD DEPUTY SPEAKER: I remind you that we do not use the word "you" in the debates. And I note the general political debate.)
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.