I have always been clear that sustained, whole-system action is needed if we are to reduce the prison population in Scotland. For example, we have taken steps to increase the capacity of community justice services across Scotland, including by investing an additional £14 million in this financial year, which brings the total funding for community justice to £148 million. We have also increased the number of criminal justice social workers.
Continuing to increase community justice capacity is only part of the answer; we also need further and deeper action and reform. That is why I stress the importance of a system-wide response, including cross-Government action, as I outlined to the Criminal Justice Committee previously. Principally, the response is about health, housing and employability. In addition, as we said in our recent programme for government, we plan to propose legislation relating to the release process for prisoners, and we are establishing an externally led review of sentencing and penal policy.