I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy, for his observations about the Youth Justice Board, which will be conveyed to it. Of course, the noble Lord, Lord McNally, the distinguished chairman of the board, has previously stood where I now stand and has had many of his proposals thoroughly scrutinised by the party opposite, including the proposal to get rid of the Youth Justice Board altogether. However, wise counsel prevailed on that occasion, and it continues to perform its function well, as the noble Lord quite rightly said.
He asked me a number of questions about the grants, including whether there be more money for the YJB for grants. This is really not about extending the function of the YJB or the YOI; the aim is to increase flexibility in how the YJB awards grants and how the money is spent. On the question about youth justice grant levels, the grant is allocated from within the Youth Justice Board’s overall budget, and there are significant challenges in meeting the savings, as the noble Lord will be aware, that all departments and arm’s-length bodies must make next year. We need to get this right. However, I am aware that youth offending teams need to plan their resources. We are close to reaching an allocation for the board, and we expect that youth offending teams will be informed soon.
I am sure that the noble Lord will accept that the youth justice IT system is a vital communication tool enabling information about young people to be shared across the youth justice system. He was concerned about the protection of data. This is, of course, not something that has been overlooked. The YJB will not be handling additional personal data as a result of these reforms, so there is no change in the risk in terms of data. This will give the YJB greater freedom to assist in the development of its systems.
There is a great deal I could say about how the youth justice IT systems are currently working, although I am not sure that the Committee would thank me for a lengthy answer. Perhaps I may just say that examples of the current systems include Connectivity, which provides a secure information-sharing mechanism between agencies in the youth justice system. I hope that the security of the programme will reassure him on the question of data. The eAsset sentence management system is used to support the placement and ongoing case management of young people in custody. The Youth Justice Management Information System collects, shares and analyses end-to-end management information, supporting better decision-making about vulnerable young people.
Lastly, the board currently has the power to identify, make known and promote good practice within the youth justice system, but at the moment this does not extend to providing assistance directly to local authorities and other persons in relation to the operation of the youth justice system and, in particular, in relation to their IT systems. Contracts for central IT systems—that is, those which are not held by local authorities—are and will continue to be held by the MoJ. The costs information we have shows that Connectivity and annual running costs are put at £835,480. The eAsset system and YJMIS annual running costs are £626,764.
Examples of the type of assistance which the YJB will be able to provide under the new function are the maintenance and management of IT systems, assisting local authorities in co-commissioning from their case management IT suppliers and helping to procure changes to IT systems.
These are minor changes to the powers, although I bear in mind the noble Lord’s general wariness about any alteration in IT systems, and given his experience he has much to teach a government body. However, I think that he will be able to see that the YJB will be very much on top of this and the data will be sufficiently secure. I hope that he can accept that the YJB will continue to do the useful job that it has been doing so far. I hope that it will be able to do it somewhat better with these increased powers. These are reasonable amendments and the board will be able to fulfil its statutory role to oversee the operation of the youth justice system and continue to make what I think are improvements. Nevertheless, one accepts that there are some difficulties which have proved to be particularly intransigent. The increase in the provision of education, the sharing of information and the capacity to have more powers in relation to grant are important ancillary powers that will enable the board better to fulfil its functions. In those circumstances, I hope that the Committee will agree that these are proportionate and sensible measures.