At its core, this White Paper is about safety and protecting people from harm. That means protecting victims, protecting the public, and protecting children themselves – from being harmed and from causing serious harm to others. A system that intervenes too late, acts inconsistently, or avoids confronting serious risk, is a system that fails everyone.

This government is clear that, with the right support at the right time, most children who offend can turn their lives around. At the same time, the government is clear that a youth justice system focused on rehabilitation must also be a system that takes safety seriously and responds firmly. That does not only apply to the most serious individual offences, but also to patterns of persistent and prolific offending – the acquisitive crime that harms businesses, the anti-social behaviour that causes misery.

This White Paper sets out the Governments approach (published by the Government of Sir Keir Starmer)
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