Youth justice roundup

Justice Secretary Damian Green has called for more young offenders to be dealt with in magistrates’ courts rather than being sent to Crown Court. Green pointed to the fact that 3,200 defendants under 18 years old were committed to the Crown Court for trial in 2012, despite youth courts being specifically set up to deal with children.

The number of offences committed by young people in Hartlepool have dropped by nearly a fifth over the past year. The Hartlepool Mail reports that in 2012/13, the town’s youth offending service dealt with a total of 151 young offenders who committed 292 offences – an 18 per cent reduction in offenders and a 22 per cent cut in the number of offences compared to the previous 12 months.

The number of drugs prescribed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has risen by 50 per cent in five years, according to the Care Quality Commission. Some 657,000 prescriptions for drugs such as Ritalin were prescribed in 2012, compared to 420,000 in 2007. Overall, the total number of controlled drugs items prescribed in NHS primary care was 47 million in 2012, a one per cent rise from 2011.

Police have sent warning letters to parents in Birmingham about three young girls playing outside. The Birmingham Mail reports that parents of Ellie-Louise Cox, four, and her seven-year-old sister Isabel, along with the family of their three-year-old neighbour, Caidence Johnsone, received official letters warning about their behaviour from a police community support officer. The letters stated that the children could face council antisocial behaviour action after people living in the area complained of “minor damage’’ to trees, the “trampling of plants” and “slightly intimidating behaviour”.