§ 13. Mr. FitzpatrickTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the range of schemes available to deal with young offenders. [129872]
§ Mr. George HowarthThe Criminal Justice Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 was introduced in January 1999 and brought in a new juvenile justice centre order of between six months and two years, half of which is spent in custody and half under close supervision in the community. The Community element of the sentence is delivered by the Probation Board for Northern Ireland.
A range of programmes for young people, both in custody and in the community, has been developed. Programmes such as cognitive behaviour training to tackle offending and the associated causes and problems such as drugs and alcohol misuse, car crime, aggressive behaviour and sex offending, have been developed on a multi-agency basis.