Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for children and young people who end up in the criminal justice system, what steps is he taking to divert them away from alcohol use, rather than taking a punitive approach.

On 20 May, the Government announced £300 million of funding over the next three years to support every council in England and Wales in preventing youth offending. The funding will help children and young people to address the root cause of their offending, and divert them away from courts and custody wherever possible. This includes where their offending is due to alcohol or other substance misuse.

There are several other options available to Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) to address problematic substance misuse where this is a driver of offending. Many YOTs offer short programmes giving advice and education about alcohol or cannabis use, as well as one-to-one sessions to address more habitual drug use. Interventions to address substance misuse are available both on a voluntary basis and when applied as a condition to a caution or an order to address specific offences.