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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

The noble Baroness has just made an important contribution. She knows a lot about these things and has put it simply. She pointed out that youth offending is static and that it is custody that has gone up. That is the truth of the matter and we should be very worried by it. The Minister tried to dismiss the notion that international comparisons are necessarily relevant, but he must be careful to look properly at those figures. They must be relevant. Young people are not all that different these days; they all take part in youth culture. Comparisons matter. The Government of the day should be giving a lead on this. We have gone a bit mad on young people’s criminality. The media are a bit shocking on the subject; they interact with public opinion and people are afraid of what will happen when they meet a young person. It has all become completely out of hand. I think that the Government should be beginning to educate people about this; they should have the courage to give a lead. I am sure that my party would assist in that, from what I understand of its thinking. A lead should be given and people should begin to understand that, in most cases, shutting someone up makes the situation much worse. We all understand that it is occasionally necessary. For certain young people, there is, for a variety of reasons, no alternative. However, that is seldom the case. The figures that we have heard this evening are shocking. I wonder whether the Government might contemplate beginning to educate the public on this subject, which I believe would be extremely helpful.