Young Offenders: Staffordshire

4. What steps her Department is taking to support young offenders in Staffordshire.

This year, the Department will provide more than £1 million in funding to the Staffordshire youth offending team to supervise children and support them in turning their back on a life of crime.

At the election, we promised to take action to reduce youth offending, with a network of Young Futures hubs and a crackdown on antisocial behaviour which causes so much pain to my constituents and to people up and down our country. Criminals must face the full force of the law, and young offenders cannot be a lost cause. Will the Minister confirm that this Government will do whatever we can to divert young people away from a lifetime of crime?

My hon. Friend is exactly right. We must do whatever we can to move people away from a life of crime and keep the public safe. This year, despite the fiscal challenges we inherited, we are investing more than £100 million in youth offending teams across the country to identify children and divert them away from crime. With turnaround funding, Staffordshire youth offending team delivered skill-building activities for children in antisocial behaviour hotspots during a successful six-week summer programme.

Are we really sure that this question is linked to young people in Staffordshire committing crime?

It might not be about Staffordshire, but we also have young people in Devon. We have a case in my constituency of a young offender who has been arrested multiple times and put under a court order, but the presumption is against incarceration because of his age. Local residents tell me that there is a disaster waiting to happen—

Order. The hon. Member is not linking her question to the original, so we are going to move on.