Shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan said the move – which would see the remit of youth offending teams (YOTs) extended in parallel – could help reduce the numbers of 18- to 20-year-olds coming into contact with the justice system and being imprisoned, replicating improvements seen with under-18s.
"I think the time is right to extend the age the YJB is responsible for," said Khan, who was speaking at a fringe meeting on the future of the youth justice system at Labour's annual conference in Manchester.
"We are doing some costings to see how it can be done."
Khan initially announced that Labour would consider extending the remit of the YJB and YOTs after the idea featured in an IPPR report in June.
Speaking at the meeting, he pledged that funding would be made available to help youth offending teams deal with the additional work they would face.
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