Fewer yobs to face court under plans to 'avoid criminalising young people'

Two key measures of Labour's flagship plan to tackle youth crime could mean fewer young offenders are hauled before the courts.

Teenage tearaways will dodge the legal system if they 'make amends to their victims' under a new Youth Conditional Caution.

Its aim is to 'reduce the number of young people being taken to court for relatively low-level offences whilst providing a robust response to their offending'.

Ministers are also preparing to expand a scheme known as the Youth Restorative Disposal, where youngsters are spared having to appear before magistrates if they say sorry to their victim.

Using this measure would mean 'avoiding criminalising young people', the Home Office said.

The proposals are part of the Government's £100million Youth Crime Action Plan, unveiled yesterday, which also attempts to shift more responsibility on to parents for their children's behaviour.

They were announced a day after Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was forced into a humiliating U-turn on plans for knife-carriers to visit stab victims in hospital.

She had to backtrack on the proposal in an emergency Commons statement after a deluge of outrage from surgeons, patients groups and crime experts.

Under the plan, more youths committing serious crimes will be named and shamed.

Community payback schemes will also be set up, where offenders carry out unpaid work in their neighbourhood, and more police patrols will be implemented at troublespots.

There will also be a crackdown on 110,000 'problem families' who torment neighbourhoods with criminal activity, vandalism and anti-social behaviour.

The worst 20,000 will be threatened with eviction if their behaviour
does not improve. But last night, the Tories rubbished the action plan as a mix of 'recycled announcements and lazy gimmicks'.

Nick Herbert, the Conservatives' justice spokesman, said in the Commons: 'People don't want more last-minute Government action plans - they want action.'

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne added: 'More headline-grabbing gi mmicks are not going to solve our youth crime problems.

'Ministers must stop grandstanding and start talking about what actually works.'