Former Premier Alex Scott has urged Government to tackle issues surrounding young black males and not sit on its hands waiting for another report to be done.

And he said a homegrown solution rather than a convoluted study by outsiders was needed to address Bermuda's urgent social ills. His comments come after Premier Ewart Brown announced he had hired an American academic for a $400,000 study into young black males which won't be completed until 2009.

In May 2005 Mr. Scott had commissioned a report by Bermudian professor Roy Wright which has now been branded incomplete by the new guard.

Professor Ronald Mincy from Columbia University said this week that the Wright study had failed to take into account the family background of the men it focused on and had not gone far enough.

Mr. Scott said his study cost $50,000 and took nine months but he conceded it had only been a precursor to more work — although much had been done already.

"If someone wants to plough on with it or take it further so be it. There is much work that could be done.

"I know people say it was incomplete but it was research — you could write for two or three or four years and still not cover the whole subject.

"What we had was an on-island perspective and what I think has been proposed is someone coming from off island.

"I hope it doesn't become too intellectual and generic or something that really could be someone's thesis.

"We want work on the ground with real people who want to do real things with young black males.

"I believe on one hand you can never have too much information but in this case you need a local solution for a local problem.

"We need it right now. We don't have the luxury of waiting for another report to be written, to digest it and act upon it. I think we should act yesterday."

As part of the Scott initiative civil servants had met with the subject groups in their neighbourhoods.

"We came away with putting an emphasis on football, soccer — that has been key."

Mr. Scott said the origins of Bermuda's gangs went back to groups formed for neighbourhood football games but somewhere along the lines those men had fallen into more divisive activities.

Soccer was vital for getting them active, said Mr. Scott, and work had been done with the BFA and famous players into providing more opportunities.

Unpublicised games between rival factions had been played said Mr. Scott to lesson tensions and had passed without incident.

"That demonstrated how important a vehicle soccer could be as a uniting force — that was only one of the things."

Other factors had been family problems so gangs had became the primary support for outcast youths.

But Mr. Scott was not willing to expand on what other plans his Government had in the pipeline to tackle the problems of marginalised black men before he was replaced by Dr. Brown.