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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I apologise for being absent, but I was attending a reception at No. 11 Downing Street for the National Grid Transco offender programme, which has reduced reoffending in its charges from 70 per cent to 7 per cent by giving young people, and now the older offenders with whom it works, a mentor and a guaranteed job after three months’ training. That is relevant to what we are discussing in demonstrating how effective, as an alternative to custody, it can be to engage young people with a mentor. It is difficult with only three officers for 60 young people in a YOI, but to engage them with a mentor and to give them something constructive that they want to do in the end leads to a win-win situation—win for business and win for society.