Government rejects expansion of YJB's remit to young adults

Youth justice experts had said the move to include young adults would help improve the transition of support offered to young offenders into adulthood.

But in its triennial review of the YJB, the Ministry of Justice has said the costs involved would be “prohibitively expensive” as it would take in around a quarter of the adult prison population, who are aged between 18 and 24.

The government is also concerned the widening of its remit would reduce the specialist support the YJB can give to children and teenagers.

In the report the Ministry of Justice says: “If the YJB were to formally expand its remit they would lose in principle the whole purpose for which they were established, which was to focus on the needs of children and young people within the justice system and create a distinct estate based on their needs.

“In practice, such an extension would risk diluting the emphasis on children and young people and could negatively impact on the quality of service to that group.”

But the report does acknowledge that offenders’ transition from childhood to adulthood needs to improve through better communication between youth and adult services.

Among those to submit evidence to the review was local government organisation Core Cities Group, which called for the YJB’s scope to be raised to 21. Peers that responded had asked to consider raising the limit to as high as 25 years old.

Penelope Gibbs, director of the charity Transform Justice, said a change in the YJB's remit to include young adults would not work in isolation.

She said: “At the moment there is a cliff edge when young people reach 18 and there is a case for upping the remit to 21, but that would have to be far broader and cover the whole justice system. It would be very difficult to manage if this rise in the age limit was just for the YJB in isolation.”

Transition to Adulthood (T2A), another group consulted in the review, is also against the YJB delivering services to adult offenders.

A spokesman said: “In [our] submission to the consultation [we] advocated that the YJB could extend its remit to be responsible for the oversight and alignment of the youth and adult systems, rather than actually delivering the service for young adults.”