Scotland's system for dealing with young offenders is slow, expensive and inefficient, according to a hard-hitting report.

Auditor general Robert Black said that the study by Audit Scotland had found "serious problems".

The report has sparked a political row, as opposition parties claim that the findings "totally destroy" the Scottish Executive's record on tackling youth crime.

However, First Minister Jack McConnell promised to "see through a programme of change" to improve the system.

It makes very grim reading for the Scottish Executive

Roseanna Cunningham, SNP

Mr Black said the study was the first comprehensive look at the justice system as a whole across Scotland.

"The system does work well up to a point, but we have found some serious problems," he said.

"One of them is that the system is very slow."

The financial watchdog's performance audit said there were inconsistencies in the way youngsters were dealt with by the children's hearing and court system in different parts of the country.

It said the set-up was skewed towards processing cases - with too little time spent on tackling offending behaviour.

Property crime

The Audit Scotland report said Scotland is short of 200 social workers, with sickness adding to the problem.

The report calls for a national system of police warnings to offenders, new standards on sentencing and a complete shift in funding to tackle offending.

Its 38 recommendations also include a call to cut the number of young offenders being imprisoned.

Audit Scotland estimates that one in 12 young people in Scotland have either offended or been the subject of a criminal investigation, with under-21s committing a disproportionately high number of crimes.

It also puts the cost of property crime to the public sector in Scotland at more than �80m a year.

Cathy Jamieson admits more must be done

The first minister "warmly welcomed" the report and said it recognised the difficulties within the system that he knew about.

"We're determined to see through a programme of change which turns around what has been a decline in the service for too long," he said.

Cathy Jamieson, the minister for young people, insisted the executive was already taking steps to address shortages in the number of qualified social workers.

"But that is not the whole story and we know that there is still much more to do," she said.

However, Scottish National Party justice spokesperson Roseanna Cunningham said: "It makes very grim reading for the Scottish Executive and totally destroys their claims that they are tackling youth offending.

"This is a damning indictment of the Lib-Lab stewardship of Scotland's Criminal Justice system and how it deals with re-offending."

Tory justice spokesman James Douglas Hamilton said the report showed that "the current system is not working".

He said: "The government's feeble position on youth crime has been exposed once again by today's damning report."

'Right issues'

Mr Black recommended a sustained programme of action over a number of years to improve the system.

He said the executive had been taking the issue "pretty seriously" in recent years and that the action plan unveiled earlier this year addressed "all the right issues".

"There have been some very significant developments in programmes for young offenders, but it is far too early to say whether these will have an impact.

"We may well come back in a couple of years and look at how effectively some of the new initiatives are operating in practice," he said.