Daily roundup 21 March: Cabinet appointment, sex offenders, and apprenticeships

A former youth worker has been appointed as Work and Pensions Secretary following the resignation of Iain Duncan Smith. Stephen Crabb was an employee for the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services early in his career and also spent time as a youth worker in London. His appointment follows the resignation of Iain Duncan Smith who criticised the government's decision to cut disability benefits.


Almost 700 convicted sex offenders have been removed from the register in the past four years, it has emerged. The BBC reports that since 2012 at least 170 rapists and 157 child abusers were told they no longer had to register with the police. They include people convicted of raping boys and girls, incest, and taking indecent images of children.


The government’s drive to get more young people into apprenticeships is “failing to deliver” for under-24s, social mobility tsar Alan Milburn has warned. The Independent reports that Milburn, who leads the independent Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, also said that the nature of apprenticeships on offer was not giving young people a strong enough foundation or a “genuine route to success”.


An independent review exploring why young black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) men are over-represented in the justice system has issued a call for evidence. The review, being led by Labour MP for Tottenham David Lammy, will look at the way the criminal justice system deals with young people and adults from BAME backgrounds.


Pupils at city schools in England will plant mini-forests in their playgrounds under a government-backed scheme. The BBC reports that schools are being offered free packs of saplings by the Woodland Trust, partly funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.