Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of changes in the numbers of young offenders in each of the last five years; and what assessment he has made of the causes of those changes.

Reducing offending by young people is a key priority for the Ministry of Justice and the Government routinely publishes data on the number of cautioning and sentencing occasions for young people as part of the Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly report: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-justice-statistics-quarterly (see Table Q6.1).

Table 1 below shows the numbers of cautioning and sentencing occasions for 10-17 year olds residing in England and Wales in each of the last five years, for the 12 months ending June.

Table 1

The reduction in the numbers of cautions and sentences has been largely driven by the fall in First Time Entrants (FTEs) to the Youth Justice System (see First Occasion column in Table 1).

The Ministry of Justice, in partnership with the Youth Justice Board and other Government Departments, keeps under review the effectiveness of all elements of the youth justice system, and associated services for young people and their families at risk of developing offending behaviour. [1]

Notes to Table 1

(1) The first occasion on which offenders received a caution or conviction for offences committed in England and Wales. Where there were multiple offences on the same occasion, the primary offence as recorded on the Police National Computer would be counted.

(2) Subsequent occasions on which offenders received a further youth caution, caution or conviction for offences committed in England and Wales. Where there were multiple offences on the same occasion, the primary offence as recorded on the Police National Computer would be counted.

(3) Cautions include juveniles receiving reprimands and warnings or youth cautions. Youth Cautions were introduced on April 8th 2013 replacing reprimands and warnings for young offenders. The guidance is published at the link http://www.justice gov.uk/out-of-court-disposals

(4) Includes offenders whose gender is not recorded on the Police National Computer.

(5) Figures include offenders residing only in England and Wales at the time of their caution or conviction.