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Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (Restoration of Powers and Responsibilities) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am no expert on youth justice and I am aware that I am surrounded today by people who are, but I support the Bill of the

noble Lord, Lord Oates, because I have too often experienced the results of a Government thinking that by transferring responsibilities in-house to central government and away from an organisation set up especially to do the job, they will improve matters. They are nearly always wrong. On the contrary, it often makes the organisation more remote, ever looking over its shoulder at the next ministerial edict. It fails to recruit leaders of quality after the first generation has gone and buries those responsible in Civil Service bureaucracy. Ministers, who are usually amateurs in the topic—although not in this House today—are often not there long enough to get to grips with the total responsibilities. Delivery deteriorates as new political priorities take centre stage.

I understand that the pattern of crime has changed; that small group we are left with is really a very difficult group. Maybe the constituent personnel of the Youth Justice Board need to change, but a revamped YJB would likely be more far more effective than further centralisation, which is what we have. It was a mystery to me why the Government would want to transfer responsibilities from a successful organisation such as the Youth Justice Board—even if it has had some blips in its history, as all organisations do—as it has done so much to reduce youth crime. Why would we transfer those responsibilities to a Minister in the MoJ, for example, when the YJB, while challenged, is not actually failing?

The Government seem to have taken no notice of Steve Crocker’s review, which was done only a few months ago. In January this year, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said about its recent report into the Ministry of Justice:

“The criminal justice system remains in crisis, end to end … On legal aid, the reforms of a decade ago are now at serious risk of going down in history as an extinction event for the entitlement to access to legal advice in large parts of the country … The issue of HMP Dartmoor is an absolute disgrace, from top to bottom”.

Again, we all know that what has happened is that the MoJ is leasing it again. It thought it was a sensible thing but that was driven by the need for prison places, never mind that it is actually unusable as a prison. It is a perfect example of a department reaching for a solution—any solution—in a blind panic and under pressure.

Then there are the other problems of the MoJ: severe staff shortages in the Prison and Probation Service, in which a staggering shortfall of personnel means that those left are suffering from exhaustion and low morale; the early release and legislative pressures we have heard so much about recently placing an impossible burden on an already buckling community supervision network—and the Government thought it would be a good idea to add more responsibilities to the MoJ? I just cannot see it myself. It is far better to do the reverse: beef up the Youth Justice Board, increase its powers, think seriously about implementing Steve Crocker’s recommendations, and maybe ask the board itself to make some recommendations about the way forward. It would be useful to scrutinise successful systems in Belgium, Norway and New Zealand on how to improve youth justice.

I support this Private Member’s Bill and wish it success—although without any expectation that the Government will see the light. But I look forward to the Minister’s response.

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