On Friday, I travelled to Firhill High School in Edinburgh to attend the launch of another fantastic project funded by our CashBack for Communities programme. 

The Hockey Nights initiative will offer young people living near the school the opportunity to play the sport for free in coaching sessions run by Scottish Hockey.  The scheme, which will be introduced in other parts of the country in the coming months, uses small games to teach the group the basic skills of hockey, introducing them to the sport and, hopefully, getting them involved in a fulfilling long-term sporting activity. 

Judging by the enthusiasm that the young people from the local community displayed in freezing conditions on Friday, the sessions will be a great success.  

This project is the latest of its kind to be paid for by our CashBack programme.  In just three years, we have taken £20 million from crooks and gangsters through proceeds of crime legislation, and handed it to hundreds of projects for young people aged between ten and 19. I am proud to say that more than 300,000 have now taken part in a CashBack funded activity.  

The grant programme already supports well established sports such as football and rugby, so this particular round of funding – the CashBack Multisport Project – saw £1.5 million handed to athletics, badminton, squash, tennis and hockey to help them expand their coaching in Scotland over the next two years. 

The money will assist the respective governing bodies introduce their sports to people that might not have normally had the opportunity to take part, keeping them out of trouble and reducing the potential for antisocial behaviour.  

This will be done with the help of councils, schools, community safety partnerships, and the police.  The first evidence of this collaborative working was there for all to see on Friday night, as the local police officers from Oxgangs tried their hand at hockey – with mixed degrees of success. 

All in all, we estimate that up to 10,000 young people will be introduced to these sports through this funding. I wish them every success. 

Kenny MacAskill, Cabinet Secretary for Justice