To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what has been the trend in the level of juvenile crime in the first quarter of this year.

The number of known juvenile offenders has been falling since 1985. Last year there were under 100,000, compared with 176,000 in 1985. We do not yet have figures for the first quarter of this year.

May I draw the attention of my right hon. Friend to the unfortunate rise in juvenile crime in my area in the first quarter of this year? The rise in joy-riding among those under 17 who have never passed a driving test is particularly worrying. Does my right hon. Friend agree that a significant factor contributing to juvenile crime is the lack of discipline and parental responsibility in the home? Does he agree that the sooner that we legislate to make parents more accountable for the actions of their children by making them appear in court with their children and pay the price of their deeds, the better it will be for all our constituents who have to bear the consequences of that lack of responsibility?

My hon. Friend is entirely right. The plans that my right hon. and learned Friend the Home Secretary published in his white paper to find new ways of making parents more responsible for preventing their children from offending—an idea which would have been unfashionable 10 years ago—have been widely welcomed in the country. I hope that we can proceed to legislate as soon as possible.

Why does the Minister continue to shuffle responsibility for the enormous increase in the crimes committed in Britain on to parents or anyone else, but refuse to admit that it is the fault of the values that his party has represented during the past 10 years? His party has introduced a rottweiler society rather than a just society. When will the Minister announce plans for crime prevention policies that provide creative outlets for our young people?

The hon. Gentleman is rather excitable this afternoon. The Labour Front-Bench approach to why crime rises and falls is extraordinarily naive. Sometimes the hon. Gentleman and the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Sparkbrook (Mr. Hattersley) say that crime rises because of poverty, but on other occasions they say that it rises because of affluence. The Guardian was entirely right two weeks ago when it criticised the right hon. Member for Sparkbrook, who is laughing there on the front bench, for his knee-jerk reaction to the recently published crime figures. If anything demonstrates to the House that the Labour party does not understand that we are all responsible for helping to prevent crime, it is the hon. Gentleman's question.