Persistent Young Offenders Pledge
In 1996, the Government pledged to halve the average time from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders from 142 days to 71 days.
A persistent young offender is a young person aged 10-17 years who has been sentenced by any criminal court on 3 or more separate occasions for one or more recordable offences, and within 3 years of the last sentencing occasion is subsequently arrested or has information laid against them for a further recordable offence.
The PYO pledge is measured using Police National Computer (PNC) data. It measures the time taken between arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders. As PNC data only covers the period between charge and sentence, the arrest to charge times are measured via an annual survey undertaken by the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA). This gives each criminal justice area an average arrest to charge time for the year, which is then added to the charge to sentence times. Most magistrates' courts also use the PYO 'Case Tracker' system for tracking PYOs. This is an internal management tool, for use locally.
It is very important that young people are able to see the direct correlation between their actions and the consequences of those actions - the offence that they commit and the subsequent consequences in court. In order for this to take place, justice needs to be quick and effective. This is particularly important for persistent young offenders, whose offending can be very entrenched. The PYO pledge aims to speed up the time between arrest to sentence for all PYOs, ensuring that they take greater responsibility for their actions. This also leads to speedier justice for victims.