Courts ‘should push parenting orders’

Magistrates should take the lead in increasing the use of parenting
orders, Lord Warner urged at a conference in London last
week.

The chairperson of the Youth Justice Board said courts should not
be put off using parenting orders by arguments that programmes were
not available in their areas, and should drive the delivery of the
programmes for the parents of young offenders.

“We want the courts to help drive the agenda by using the orders.
If the courts use the orders, local services will have to deliver
the programmes and the resources will have to be made available,”
Warner said.

He also warned that action was needed to improve the youth justice
system in London.

London is the only area not to have met the government’s target to
halve the time from arrest to sentence for persistent young
offenders. In the last quarter of 2002, the average time to process
cases in London was 85 days compared with an average of 70 days in
England and Wales.