Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce the reoffending rate among children.

The Beating Crime Plan 2021 highlighted the importance of targeted interventions for those who have started to offend, in order to reduce crime. Turnaround is a youth early intervention programme, launched in December 2022, which provides additional grant funding to Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) across England and Wales for them to work with children who have, for example, received a caution for the first time, addressing the root causes of that offending.

We have also recently launched the Youth Justice Sport Fund, funding voluntary and community sector organisations to carry out targeted work supporting children vulnerable to involvement in crime and violence, using sport to address problem behaviour.

In addition to funding these early intervention programmes we are working to ensure children who are already in the justice system receive targeted support to access suitable education or training, safe accommodation, healthcare and substance misuse treatment, diverting them away from a life of crime. New key performance indicators for Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) will come into force in April 2023 and will include metrics to drive improvements in support for children upon release from custody.

Later this year, we will launch a pilot of new powers in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. The pilot will allow us to trial changes to Youth Rehabilitation Orders with Intensive Supervision and Surveillance. These changes seek to give courts the confidence that children can be effectively supervised through a community sentence, which can be more effective in reducing reoffending than custody.