HC Deb 19 May 1994 vol 243 cc942-3
5. Mr. Coe

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will publish details of the proposed secure training centres for young offenders.

The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. David Maclean)

I intend shortly to place in the Library of the House a copy of the operating specification for the new centres.

Mr. Coe

I thank my hon. Friend for his answer. He will be aware that people in my constituency, as in all other constituencies, are angry and tired of having their homes broken into, their cars stolen and often burnt out and their hard-earned property burgled. Does he recognise that the need for secure centres is more important than ever before and that the thrust of activity in those centres must concentrate on rehabilitation, education and training, but above all on counteracting offensive and offending behaviour?

Mr. Maclean

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is why the experts at the sharp end—the police—have given a complete and total welcome to our proposals that action can be taken against 12 to 14-year-olds who are currently outwith the law. My hon. Friend is also right that in the special centres for young persistent offenders we intend to concentrate on training, rehabilitation and addressing the offending behaviour. We can do that only if we take the offenders away from the street corners and get them into specialist centres where specialists can give them the training that they need.

Mr. Gunnell

As the professionals dealing with young people are generally opposed to the proposals, which will separate children from their families by great distances, and as the centres will not be able to offer the national curriculum, how does the Minister intend to overcome those defects? Does he accept that in the past other methods have proved much more effective than the Government's experiments to combat youth crime?

Mr. Maclean

I do not accept what the hon. Gentleman says. Nothing like this has been tried before. That is why it is wrong for certain people to give the impression that the centres are mini-prisons; they are not that at all. I must tell the hon. Gentleman, in the nicest possible way, that I should, be more willing to listen to his point were it not for the complete inconsistency shown by the Opposition recently. In this Chamber, there was no all-out assault by the Opposition against the provisions in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill dealing with young offenders, but in another place, the whole Opposition Front Bench tried to remove entirely the clauses dealing with young offenders.