§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many young offenders have participated in family group conferencing since its inception in 1999 as set out in paragraph 2.17 of Command Paper 5778. [106787]
§ Hilary BennFamily group conferencing is one of a range of restorative approaches available to Youth Offending Teams to engage young offenders and their families to prevent re-offending. National figures are not available on family group conferencing but, as an example of its local development, in Essex between June 2000 and the end of March 2003, 77 family group conferences have taken place and eight are pending.