§ Mr. David PorterTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will initiate a full trial into a scheme for young offenders to receive training at sea on the vessel Excelsior, at Lowestoft, for periods of up to three months, to be deducted from their sentences if they passed the training satisfactorily.
§ Mr. MacleanFunds are available through the probation supervision grants scheme for voluntary organisations providing sail and similarly challenging training to operate projects designed to strengthen the range and content of programmes for the supervision of offenders who are serving sentences in the community. I see a number of benefits from this approach, and will want to test the effectiveness of this kind of training and consider the scope for integrating it into other sentences. We are discussing with a number of probation services the extent to which offenders could participate in Excelsior Sailing Trust activities, which could be funded under the scheme.