Specialist courts to prevent young offenders reoffending will be piloted as part of reforms announced by the government today to ‘overhaul’ youth justice.
The Ministry of Justice said the ‘youth intervention courts’ will bring together judges, youth justice services and specialist support to keep young people ‘on track’. These courts will also provide intensive supervision and tailored interventions, including health or educational requirements.
The specialist court is one of several measures outlined in a youth justice white paper published today. Parenting orders, which can compel parents to address their child’s behaviour but are now rarely deployed, will be strengthened, as will youth rehabilitation orders to track children’s whereabouts.
An extra £15.4m will be invested in ‘Turnaround’, the government’s youth early intervention programme. As of December 2024, 7% of children who completed a ‘turnaround’ intervention went on to receive a sentence or caution. Proposals on reforming the youth out-of-court resolution framework will be unveiled this autumn and a review of the 'function and purpose' of criminal courts for child defendants will report next year.
Deputy prime minister David Lammy said: 'Too many young people are being drawn into crime, with devastating consequences for victims, communities and their own futures. These reforms lay the foundation to intervene far earlier, support families, and tackle the drivers of offending so fewer young people become trapped in cycles of crime, creating safer streets and fewer victims.'
The Bar Council set up a working group to examine the minimum age of criminal responsibility, which is due to report shortly.
Bar chief Kirsty Brimelow KC said: ‘There needs to be a shift from criminalisation - which long has been shown to set a child onto a path of crime - to rehabilitation... Knowledge about child development has moved on substantially and yet the minimum age of criminal responsibility remains at 10 years’ old in England and Wales. It is the youngest in Europe and we are an outlier in prosecuting young children.
'The Bar Council is producing a report examining the minimum age of criminal responsibility over the next weeks and we look forward to working with the government on youth justice.'
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