Crime: Youth Justice

Lord Warner Excerpts

Monday 24th October 2011 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Warner]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have changed their policy regarding the abolition of the Youth Justice Board in the light of the public consultation and the board’s assistance in dealing with the aftermath of recent street riots.

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord McNally)]

No, my Lords, it remains the Government’s intention to abolish the Youth Justice Board and to carry out its main functions within the Ministry of Justice.

[Lord Warner]

My Lords, I suppose I ought to thank the Minister for that reply, because he has the disadvantage of his department having lost some of the responses to the summer consultation. However, is he aware that the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Magistrates’ Association have written trenchant letters to Mr Crispin Blunt, his colleague, saying that the Government have got this wrong and that the board should not be abolished? How many other organisations have written in similar terms in response to the consultation?

While he is about it, can the Minister explain to the House why it is right to abolish one commissioning board in order to improve ministerial accountability but in another department it is appropriate to install the daddy of all quangos at the same time—the National Commissioning Board, for the Minister's information—and can he assure the House, as the noble Earl will later, that that in no way affects ministerial accountability?

[Lord McNally]

My Lords, perhaps fortunately, I am responsible for the Ministry of Justice, and, there, we have come to the clear conclusion that we can operate the responsibilities of the Youth Justice Board better by creating a new youth justice division, which will be a dedicated part of the MoJ sitting outside NOMS, and maintaining continuity and expertise by agreeing that John Drew, the current chief executive of the YJB, will lead the division.

We have indeed received a number of responses—70 in all, I think—to the consultation, which closed on 11 October. The department is studying those responses and will report in due course.