My Lords, this has been an important debate. It is four-square with two instincts that I had when I came in to this job two and a half years ago and they have been reinforced by all the experiences that I have had over the past 30 months. The first relates to the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Linklater, that women are different and need a different response from our criminal justice system. The other relates to the age group of young adult offenders—whether it is 18 to 21 or 18 to 25. Not only is that the age of a transition to adulthood; it can also be a transition to a lifetime in crime. It has struck me time and again that if only we could extend some of the lessons that we have learnt from the treatment of young offenders under the age of 18 into that age group, we might be able to have a similar impact.
One thing that is encouraging concerns my right honourable friend Chris Grayling, the new Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. I have been impressed by the freshness of his thinking in some of these areas. It may be that, like me, he has the benefit of not being a lawyer and comes to it with a certain action-this-day, can-do approach. One thing I will accept that the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, referred to earlier. I will propose to the Lord Chancellor that he comes to this end of the building and that we have a meeting. I think that it will be to our mutual benefit.
On the point about women, raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Linklater, and the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, I make the point that women now have a new champion in the Ministry of Justice, Helen Grant MP. While Helen has been working her way into the job, it has caused a slight delay in the publication
of the women’s strategy. She is entirely comfortable with the content and direction. As for when it will be ready, I am not sure which of the civil servants’ euphemisms I am allowed to use—before Christmas, shortly, in December—but work is well under way and she is taking a close and personal interest. I think that it will be greatly to the advantage of the priority that women are given within the Ministry of Justice that Helen is now in place. I also emphasise that, in developing that women’s strategy, we build on the work done by the noble Baroness, Lady Corston, and the template that she laid down. As with the previous Administration, there is a difficulty with resources in some of our ambitions, but that does not take away from the fact that we are looking at a real and effective strategy, building on the Corston proposals and taking them forward.
Likewise, young adult offenders are a very important group, and if we are going to succeed in a rehabilitation revolution it is in that group that we have to find our success. We must explore ideas to get effective programmes for them. I thank my noble friend Lady Linklater and the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, for drawing the Committee’s attention to these important issues. This Government share their belief that it is important that the criminal justice system is properly responsive to the needs of female and young adult offenders. If we are successfully to rehabilitate both groups of offenders, it is important that we take into account the different profiles of women and young adult offenders, including the factors associated with their offending.
6.30 pm
The Government are committed to ensuring that we, in conjunction with the voluntary and private sectors, deliver appropriate services that address the needs of female offenders. To support this, the Government have provided an additional £3.78 million to probation trusts to fund 31 women’s community services in 2012-13. These services aim to address the underlying factors associated with women’s offending, including substance misuse, mental health issues and histories of domestic violence and abuse. Furthermore, these centres offer options for the courts to support and complement the statutory work of probation trusts in the delivery of community and suspended sentence orders, and to support women in the successful completion of post-release licences. This additional funding is now embedded in the National Offender Management Service’s community budget baselines to allow for continued support of provision for women.
Probation trusts are already required by the National Offender Management Service Commissioning Intentions document, to demonstrate how they will ensure the appropriate provision of women’s services. All probation trusts have met this year’s requirement to provide appropriate provision for women and there are many good examples of a gender-specific approach to female offenders in the community, as a number of noble Lords have said. Furthermore, the unpaid work operating manual issued by the National Offender Management Service requires that women should be allocated to work placements that take account of their needs. This may be a placement with a beneficiary agency that is sensitive to the needs of women, or a specific
female-only group placement. The manual also requires that when planning provision for women, the view of female offenders themselves must be taken into account, with the presumption that they will not be required to work alongside male offenders.
I would also like to add that the small number of female offenders in some trust areas means that female-only unpaid work programmes may not always be the most appropriate way of addressing their needs. It could, for example, result in women having to travel long distances. This has cost implications for these women, and could particularly create difficulties where a woman has childcare responsibilities. It is therefore essential that probation trusts have the freedom to make appropriate arrangements for female offenders that reflect local needs.
On Amendment 20 and young adult offenders, I can confirm that this Government share the concerns raised by the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, and are committed to ensuring we deliver services that take account of young adult offenders’ particular needs. We recognise that transition between youth and adult services is a potential point of vulnerability for young people and we are already working hard to ensure more consistent processes for supporting young people who are transferring between systems. For example, in September the Youth Justice Board launched a transitions framework, which provides guidance to those working with young adults who are transferring from youth offending teams to probation services. Furthermore, we are investing £3.7 million in a new youth to adult portal to improve how secure information about young adults is transferred from youth offending teams to both probation services and young offender institutions. Already, users have provided very positive feedback about the impact that this is having on their ability to respond to the individual needs of young adult offenders.
In addition to these initiatives, the National Offender Management Service is developing a specific commissioning strategy for young adults through its programme of work to define its commissioning intentions. Our initial thinking is that cognitive skills training and work to prevent recreational drug usage developing into drug dependency are particularly beneficial within this age group. However, individual assessment remains just as important with this group as it is with older adults, and the assessment can help to determine whether these or other interventions are most appropriate.
I hope I have demonstrated that this Government take seriously the needs of female and young adult offenders and that a bespoke statutory duty to this end is not required. In light of the points I have raised, I hope that my noble friend Lady Linklater will agree to withdraw her amendment and the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, will agree not to move his. I can assure them that the arguments that they have deployed are in sympathy with the direction of travel of Helen Grant as regards women and of the Secretary of State as regards young offenders. I shall reflect whether that is best handled in amendments as proposed in this Bill or by other means. I hope that in that spirit the noble Baroness will withdraw her amendment and I shall ponder on the points made in this debate.