Memorandum submitted by the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA)

The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) represents the 22 local authorities in Wales, and the three national park authorities, the three fire and rescue authorities, and four police authorities are associate members. It seeks to provide representation to local authorities within an emerging policy framework that satisfies the key priorities of our members and delivers a broad range of services that add value to Welsh Local Government and the communities they serve.

The WLGA is heavily involved in the Community Safety policy agenda both within Wales and the wider UK. This involvement includes a keen interest in the issue of offending, reducing re-offending and the management of offenders.

In terms of Juvenile and Young Offenders, the WLGA supports the philosophy as set out in the All Wales Youth Offending Strategy. The Strategy stresses that prevention is key in helping to tackle offending amongst children and young people and that an holistic and multi-agency approach needs to be taken in this regard. When offending does take place, the Strategy argues that children and young people should be treated as children first and offenders second.

With regards to the sentencing of Children and Young People, the Association is of the view, again in line with the Youth Offending Strategy, that where a child or young person does offend, there needs to be effective ways of dealing with them in the community. The recent LGA publication, 'Children in Trouble', also stresses that children who commit non-violent offences should be given tough community-based sentences rather than be sent to prison, a view shared by the WLGA.

Where young offenders are placed on custodial remand or receive custodial sentences they need to be placed in suitable local accommodation within close proximity to family and other support networks. Currently, the vast majority of Welsh young offenders serve their custodial sentences in institutions in England. Not only does this put pressure on and undermine familial and other supportive links, but it can also have a considerable negative impact on the cultural and language needs of Welsh young offenders. The Juvenile Supplement, which complements the Wales Reducing Re-offending Strategy, recognises that the placing of young offenders in custody in institutions in England not only opens up issues of language and culture, it also highlights that English custodial institutions are not bound by the policies and strategies which the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) has developed to improve the lives of all young people in Wales. Similar issues, of course, apply to women offenders given the lack of a women's prison in Wales. The WLGA would argue that there needs to be improved custodial accommodation locally in Wales for both juvenile and young offenders and also for women offenders. At the same time, however, we would stress that custodial sentences should be used as a matter of last resort.

A vitally important factor when considering the issue of Welsh prisoners in the prison estate is the issue of reducing re-offending. Not only is it key to help prevent offending in the first instance, but where offending does occur, it is important that effective mechanisms are in place to help prevent re-offending. The WLGA is actively involved in the delivery of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) Reducing Re-offending Strategy and is represented on both the Strategy Board and the pathway working groups. Local Authorities, in terms of the services they deliver have a clear role to play in helping to tackle re-offending be it through core services such as education and housing, or through services delivered through the Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs). It is also a fact that a significant proportion of all crimes in Wales are committed by a relatively small number of prolific offenders. Tackling this is key to reducing the level of crime and the WLGA supports Local Authorities and the CSPs in Wales in their delivering of the Prolific and Priority Offender strategy.

December 2006