Parents face counselling sessions and fines if children commit crimes

Parents and carers will face fines and counselling sessions under plans to crack down on spiralling child crime.

Deputy PM David Lammy will today vow to overhaul the youth justice system to stop young people becoming “trapped in cycles of crime”. The major package of reforms could cut the number of kids in custody by at least a fifth.

Eight out of ten prolific offenders committed their first crime as a child, while two-thirds of those released from custody reoffend within a year, according to the Ministry of Justice MoJ).

A landmark Youth Justice Paper, which will be unveiled on Monday, will pledge to expand Parenting Orders, which can compel parents or guardians to address their child’s behaviour. The use of these orders has declined dramatically from more than 1,000 in 2009/10 to just 33 in 2022/23.

The proposals also include plans to launch a pilot of Youth Intervention Courts to bring together judges, youth justice services and specialist support for the first time. Children could also be made to wear electronic tags under plans being considered to strengthen Youth Rehabilitation Orders to ramp up intensive supervision and surveillance.

And ministers will commit to creating a new child criminal exploitation offence to ensure adults face the law if they pray on children and draw them into offending.

The Government will also set a target to cut custodial remand of young people by 25% by 2029 amid hundreds of children being locked up before being found guilty. Nearly half (44%) of children in youth custody are on remand, despite nearly two-thirds not ultimately receiving a custodial sentence.

Many young people are remanded - which is when people are held in custody before a trial - for relatively minor offences and for short periods at the most formative time of their lives, the Ministry of Justice said. Black and Mixed Heritage children are disproportionately affected.

As part of the plans, an extra £15.4million per year will be invested in the Government’s Turnaround programme to help a further 12,000 children at risk of entering the youth justice system over the next three years. As of December 2024, just 7% of children who had completed Turnaround interventions had gone on to receive a sentence or caution, according to the MoJ

There were just over 8,100 children who entered the youth justice system for the first time in the year up to March 2025, with an average of around 420 children in custody at any one time during the year.

The youth justice announcements follow other efforts to slash crime among youngsters, including plans for every child in England and Wales caught carrying a knife to be given a mandatory specialised plan to stop them reoffending.

Mr Lammy - who is the Justice Secretary - said: “Too many young people are being drawn into crime, with devastating consequences for victims, communities and their own futures.

“These reforms lay the foundation to intervene far earlier, support families, and tackle the drivers of offending so fewer young people become trapped in cycles of crime, creating safer streets and fewer victims.”

Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said: “As Children’s Commissioner, I have consistently been clear about the need to reform the youth justice system. We must build an approach that keeps children safe, diverts them from crime wherever possible, and prioritises meaningful behaviour change."