Lord Laming
Main Page: Lord Laming (Crossbench - Life peer)Young Offenders: Sentencing Guidelines
Lord Laming Excerpts
Baroness Buscombe
My Lords, the noble Lord is right that judges, particularly when children or young people are involved, consider the individual circumstances of each case to prevent reoffending and to stop young people falling into a life of crime. This includes being aware of the factors contributing to the overrepresentation of black and minority ethnic children and young people in the youth justice system. The new guideline aims to ensure a consistent approach to sentencing and to look in far greater detail at the age, background and circumstances of the individual child. This is in order to reach the most appropriate sentence that will best achieve the principal aim of the youth justice system, which is preventing reoffending.
Lord Laming (CB)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that keeping young people in custody is financially very costly, and very costly to them on an individual basis? Would it not be better if we could devise better ways of diverting young people from custodial sentences to prevent this downward spiral into long-term criminality?
Baroness Buscombe
I entirely agree with the noble Lord. These guidelines have been developed following extensive public consultation, very much on this point, in 2016. Research with sentencers suggested that there may be a shift from custodial to community sentences for a small number of cases where a custodial sentence is currently imposed. The important thing is that we are paying more attention to low-level offending by children. We want to keep them out of custody where possible. It is quite clear to us that we have to tackle underlying factors that lead to children and young people committing offences, thereby blighting their life chances. Since the peak in youth offending in 2006-07 there has been an incredible 71% fall in the number of young people sentenced, from around 94,600 to just under 28,000 in 2015-16. Custodial sentencing has seen a 70% fall—this is amazing progress.