The bill has been under development since 2003 and was published in its draft form during the last Parliament. It was expected to be put forward to become law in the current parliamentary session, but its absence from the speech now makes this unlikely.
Chris Stanley, head of youth crime at crime-reduction charity Nacro, said: "This was a good piece of legislation. It was well thought out, would probably have satisfied most people, and would have had a good effect on reducing custody."
The bill would have introduced an intensive supervision and surveillance order, similar to the existing intensive supervision and surveillance programme. Courts would have been required to place all but the most serious young offenders on this for a year before giving them a custodial sentence.
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