Young Offenders: Sentencing Guidelines

Lord Hain Excerpts

Thursday 16th March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Buscombe]

My Lords, as we continue to develop our plans for supporting young people and children—we are talking here sometimes about very young children—we look at every opportunity to consider how other countries manage, including what is happening in Northern Ireland. We are developing our framework very much in terms of what was recommended by the Charlie Taylor review because we think that that will take us in the right direction for the future of our children and young people.

[Lord Hain (Lab)]

My Lords, will the Minister look at how the benefits system interacts with those who are released from custody, particularly young offenders but offenders more generally? I have long thought that the benefits system is far too rigid and far less generous than it should be to keep released offenders, especially young offenders, in a system that leads to a job—in their case, which trains them for a job. Otherwise, they simply fall back into their old ways, mixing with their old friends.

[Baroness Buscombe]

The noble Lord is right. We have debated this over many years in both Houses of this Parliament. This is one of the key recommendations which the Government have accepted and taken on board in putting the education, training and healthcare of these children and young people at the heart of developing pilot secure schools, for example, where these children will have education and training. There has also to be a focus on the benefits system to ensure that we encourage and incentivise them not to reoffend.