§ Mr. Roseasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will publish the report on the Advisory Council on the Penal System on young adult offenders; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Roy JenkinsThe report, which was commissioned by my right hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, South-East (Mr. Callaghan) when he was Home Secretary, was submitted to my predecessor last November. It is being published 137W today. The House will be indebted to the members of the advisory council for undertaking this most thoughtful and illuminating review, and I would like to express my personal thanks to them.
The report comprehensively surveys the existing methods for the treatment of offenders aged from 17 to 21. Its theme is that increasing emphasis should now be placed, in the arrangements for dealing with young adult offenders, on treatment within the community. The council pays tribute to the achievements of those who have devoted themselves to work in borstals and detention centres, but endorses some of the doubts which have been expressed about the philosophy underlying the present system. It also examines the difficulties seen by the courts in the present statutory restraints on their powers to impose custodial sentences of certain kinds and duration. The council's main recommendations are: the replacement of the existing custodial sentences by a new sentence of "custody and control", enabling offenders to be released as soon as appropriate to supervision in the community; the amalgamation of the existing custodial establishments into a single, unified system, with greater emphasis
MURDERS OF CHILDREN AGED 16 YEARS AND UNDER Total Murdered by parents Murdered by close relative Number Per cent. Number Per cent. 1971 … … … 40 32 80 — — 1972 … … … 27 13 48 2 7 Note: The totals are of the latest corrected figures known to the police and include some murders so far unsolved: two for 1971 and five for 1972. "Parent" includes step-parent and cohabitant of parent.