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13 May 2008 : Column 1568W—continued
Applications may be refused on a number of grounds, including criminality, mental health, the lack of the right to work or other information which the SIA may receive. Information on the grounds of refusal is recorded in individual cases but not centrally collated and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Young Offenders
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment she has made of the effects of financial hardship amongst children and young people on their propensity to offend. [204347]
Mr. Coaker:
Growing up with poverty and deprivation can have serious impacts on children's experiences and life chances. Poor childhood development and experiences can lead to negative outcomes including lower educational attainment and employability, poor health and poor non-cognitive skills. Such outcomes increase the likelihood
that children will face poverty and deprivation later in life leading to intergenerational cycles of deprivation.
Chapter 5 of Ending Child Poverty—Everybody's Business (published alongside the Budget on 12 March this year) sets out the new approach to developing the child poverty strategy to meet the Government's target for halving child poverty by 2010 and eradicating it by 2020.
Child poverty is multi-faceted and requires a joined-up approach especially at the local level which is why our new approach sets out the role for Government, communities, local authorities, service providers, employers and families as partners in a contract out of poverty.
The Government are committed to tackling crime, and in particular intervening early with young people to prevent crime and antisocial behaviour and reduce the impact of youth crime on our communities.
That is why the Home Office is working closely with the Ministry of Justice and Department for Children, Schools and Families, to develop the Youth Crime Action Plan. The Action Plan will be published in summer 2008. It will set out an overall strategy for youth crime reduction. The Action Plan will deliver results across youth crime prevention and youth justice as well as a cross cutting theme on victimisation. The overall aim is to reduce offending and re-offending by young people.
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