We have responded to the Home Office consultation on a new legal duty to support a multi-agency approach to preventing and tackling serious violence. We support a public health approach to tackling serious violence which seeks to address its root causes and welcome the government’s acknowledgement of the need to shift focus from a punitive response towards a multi-agency, more preventative approach. We welcome the intention to encourage organisations to share information, data and intelligence, and work in concert rather than isolation to identify children at risk as early as possible.

We have responded to the Justice Select Committee inquiry into the Access to Justice impacts of courts and tribunals reform. Our response focuses on the HMCTS Reform Programme in the criminal courts as it affects child defendants, especially on the use of video links and online pleas.

We welcome the Charlie Taylor review of the youth justice system and the government’s response. We agree with the principles stated by, and implicit in, Taylor’s work, and with many of his recommendations. A number of the government’s commitments set out in its response are welcome; however, we are disappointed that it has not gone further and that it has failed to respond to some of Taylor’s proposals at all.