The initiative featured on a television documentary

The executive decided the Airborne Initiative did not provide value for its �600,000 annual investment.

The scheme for young offenders who had not responded to conventional punishment combined outdoor physical activities with counselling sessions.

The centre in Carluke, Lanarkshire, was featured in the BBC series Chancers, which showed inmates taking drugs.

The Airborne board said it had no choice but to immediately close down the centre.

Its level of performance has not convinced me that further investment would represent value for money Hugh Henry Deputy Justice Minister

Deputy Justice Minister Hugh Henry announced the executive was ending its funding for the unit at the end of the current financial year.

Mr Henry said the executive had decided the programme did not "represent value for money".

But he denied the executive was reacting to the recent criticisms of Airborne following the BBC coverage earlier this year.

"Our decision to refuse Airborne's latest application for funding is not a rash one - it has been taken against the backdrop of its performance and value for money over a number of years," Mr Henry said.

"Airborne has been given many opportunities to improve and deliver as part of that range of interventions.

"It is no longer a fledgling enterprise and as such should be delivering results.

The board of the Airborne Initiative has had no option but to cease operations with immediate effect Trevor Royle Airborne Initiative

"Instead it has experienced one problem after another.

"Its level of performance has not convinced me that further investment would represent value for money."

Airborne, which began in 1994, offers nine-week residential courses at Braidwood House to offenders aged 18 to 25 and combines outdoor activities with various forms of structured support.

Mr Henry said Airborne was too expensive and the cost to send a young offender on a course was more expensive than the equivalent period in prison.

Staff disappointed

"In the past two years the number of offenders dropping out of the programme has been greater than the number completing it," the minister said.

"Let me be clear - every penny that would have gone to Airborne will be invested in other community projects."

Trevor Royle, deputy chairman of the board that runs the unit, said: "We are very disappointed that the executive has decided to withdraw funding for a unique project for young offenders.

Inmates are taken on outward bound exercises

"It is a pioneering scheme which has kept many people out of prison.

"As a result of the Scottish Executive's decision not to continue funding the Airborne programme the board of the Airborne Initiative has had no option but to cease operations with immediate effect.

"The board very much regrets having to take this course of action."

The Airborne Initiative employs 26 staff and had 11 offenders going through the programme when the announcement was made.

Karen Gillon, Labour MSP for Clydesdale - the constituency covering the initiative's home - said she backed Mr Henry's decision.

"I am obviously disappointed for the staff who had put in such hard work with difficult clients and who now face redundancy," she said.

"There have been issues for some time surrounding the numbers of young people who drop out and the effectiveness of the courses."