Justice Committee Report: Youth Justice

Debate between Steve Brine and Lord Beith

Thursday 14th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Beith]

That is an extremely valuable initiative, and it relates to the point I will make later about early intervention, but as a Committee we think a lot more will need to be done in this area.

[Steve Brine (Winchester) (Con)]

I thank the Chairman, the Committee and the staff for the work they have done in producing what is a weighty tome. Further to that point, we say in the report, based on the evidence that the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists gave us, that 10% of children in the general population have speech, communication and language difficulties, but the proportion of young offenders with such difficulties is 65% or just over. I am sure he remembers that we heard in evidence how this over-representation is part of a compounding risk model that begins at an early age. Does he therefore agree that, as well as ensuring that our youth justice system has access to speech and language therapists to help young people when they get into trouble and are in the system, we would be smart as a country to widen access—