§ 53. Mr. BaldryTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what initiatives he is currently supporting to develop alternatives to custody for young people.
§ Mr. John PattenThe Home Office action plan on tackling offending encourages probation services to develop local action plans for dealing with more young adult offenders in the community. Intensive probation programmes mainly for young adult offenders at risk of custody are under discussion in 10 probation areas. Grants totalling about £1x00B7;5 million over three years have been made available to encourage voluntary sector participation in work with 17 to 20-year-old offenders in the community.