Same Old, Same Old?

 

There are some useful if narrow recommendations in the first part of the Justice Committee report on children in custody published today. Ensuring those who turn 18 while waiting for a court date should be sentenced as children rather than adults, and providing “intermediaries” to help vulnerable child defendants participate in court hearings, are long overdue. But well done to those who have lobbied for the changes.

It’s been obvious for a while too that the MOJ and YJB need to get a better handle on the various out of court measures which are used for most children in trouble -by better data collection, evaluation and a funding review.  

There is likely to be less consensus about the merits of direct recruitment to the youth magistracy so JP’s can specialise in youth court work from the outset. And whether to make Youth Rehabilitation Orders available for first time offenders at risk of custody could divide youth justice specialists. But the inquiry deserves credit for bringing these matters to attention.

On some of the bigger questions the report is disappointing. MPs want to know what resource has been allocated by the MoJ to addressing racial disproportionality. Given the significance of the issue, why didn’t they simply ask ministers and officials during the inquiry? Or about the court backlog or what’s being done to support participants in remote hearings- both subjects on which the Committee now want information.  

On three substantive questions the Committee has held its fire. They like the idea of a “feedback loop” between the Youth Court, Youth Offending Teams and the young person which may help improve transparency and support rehabilitation. But they recommend only “a review of current sentencing options, with a view to introducing it”. Four years ago, Charlie Taylor’s Youth Justice Review worried that “magistrates can play little or no role in overseeing a child’s progress against the sentence they have passed.” The MoJ rejected his radical proposals for fixing that but promised to explore ways to strengthen courts’ involvement with children they sentence. Something more than another review is needed if anything much is to happen on this front.

That’s even more true in respect of the minimum age of criminal responsibility. Despite England and Wales’s status as an international outlier, the Committee “are not persuaded that it should be immediately increased” from 10. Presumably agreement among the members could be reached only on the weasel words “we consider there is a case for reviewing the age of criminal responsibility”. This seems to fly in the face of the evidence they received. The report claims that “there are …. many organisations and individuals who do not think the age should be increased”. It mentions only one, the MOJ, which it then asks to conduct the review. The Committee does recommend that if the review concludes that the age of 10 should stay, “the Ministry set out the evidence and reasoning to justify it”. But the long grass beckons for this one too.  

As for the headline finding – that meeting the complex needs facing children in youth justice requires a “whole system approach” involving educational, psychological and social services- there are not much more than warm words. Of course, they are the right words, but finding the best ways of delivering these services to the right children, at the best time, and at the necessary scale are not at all straightforward and need much more consideration. 

Perhaps the second report will provide it.