Juvenile Offenders (Hansard, 3 May 1990)

§ 6. Mr. Alexander
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment his Department has made of the success of community-based penalties in preventing juveniles from re-offending.

§ 49. Mr. Gill
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of community-based penalties in preventing juveniles from re-offending.

§ Mr. Stevens
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of community-based penalties in preventing juveniles from re-offending.

§ Mr. Waddington
The available information suggests that young offenders who receive community penalties are less likely to be reconvicted than those who receive custodial sentences.

§ 21. Mr. Burns
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps are being taken to make parents more responsible for crimes committed by their children.

§ 37. Mr. Hague
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps are being taken to make parents more responsible for crimes committed by their children.

§ 44. Dr. Goodson-Wickes
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps are being taken to make parents more responsible for crimes committed by their children.

§ Mr. John Patten
The White Paper "Crime, Justice and Protecting the Public" sets out proposals for strengthening the statutory provisions relating to parents' attendance at court with their children; parents' payment of their children's fines; and the binding over of parents of convicted juvenile offenders.

§ Mr. Speller
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to enable young offenders to complete day centre requirements of probation orders while undertaking youth employment training.

§ Mr. Waddington
We are concerned that young offenders' training needs and benefit entitlements should not be adversely affected by their attendance at day centre programmes as a condition of a probation order. To this end, we have agreed with the Training Agency that day centre attendance should be integrated with the youth training scheme. Arrangements for this were promulgated in January. This should ensure that 16 and 17-year-old offenders do not lose their eligibility for income support as a result of attending a day centre.
Unemployed adult offenders attending day centres on weekdays remain eligible for benefit provided that they are seeking work at the same time as part of the day centre programme or on the days when they do not attend the day centre.