New Clause 2 - PENAL CUSTODY FOR CHILDREN
Police and Justice Bill
5:30 pm
Fiona Mactaggart (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Slough, Labour)
I thank the hon. Lady for raising this important issue, which has been extensively discussed in Parliament. It is right that we take great care in those rare circumstances—unfortunately, not rare enough—where children end up in the custody of the state following offending.
The first responsibility, as the hon. Member for The Wrekin (Mark Pritchard) said, is for the state to intervene in a preventive way, to reduce the factors associated with offending by young people. Education is a factor, and others relate to family offending patterns, lack of parental support and so on. Indeed, much of the work done by my right hon. Friend the Minister of State on the respect agenda and support for parenting has played an important part in reducing offending among children.