The Government last week rejected calls by MPs to increase its investment in youth inclusion programmes (YIPs).

YIPs work with teenagers who are at risk of offending. The Home Affairs Select Committee called for a "significant expansion" of YIPs in its Anti-Social Behaviour report last April (YPN, 6-12 April, p12).

But in its response to the report, published last week, the Government insisted that it was spending enough on YIPs.

While the committee's report broadly supported the Government's work on antisocial behaviour, the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles attacked the policies in a report last week.

Gil-Robles also called on the UK to raise the age of criminal responsibility, which is as young as eight in Scotland, to be more in line with "European norms".

www.parliament.uk

www.coe.int.