NINE out of ten persistent young offenders on the Government’s £100 million flagship programme to tackle youth crime reoffended within two years.

The damning findings are a huge blow to the credibility of a four-year-old scheme hailed by the Home Office as a hands-on way of curbing offending by teenagers.

A report published yesterday found that offenders who had been on the scheme committed an average of seven crimes in the two years. Among those who have offended while on the intensive supervision and surveillance programme is Peter Williams, jailed for life for the murder of Marian Bates in her jewellery shop in Nottingham. Williams, 19, had repeatedly breached his curfew and at times removed his electronic tag.

Thousands of youngsters have been on the programme, which involves tagging and police surveillance, and costs £12,000 each. But despite the poor results, the Youth Justice Board, which runs the scheme, described it yesterday as “the most robust and innovative community-based based programe available for persistent and serious young offenders”.

But David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, condemned the figures in the report as an “utter disgrace”. He said: “Last year’s figures were bad, but this year’s are worse. With more than nine in ten reoffending, the Government’s flagship scheme must be called into question.” He added: “We need workable solutions to tackle youth crime.”

The report into the programme, which has cost £96 million since it began, was released together with 13 Home Office reports on the criminal justice system. A survey on sentencing reveals that judges and magistrates sentenced a record 1.5 million offenders last year.

The findings that 91 per cent of youths who have been on the government scheme were reconvicted within two years will cause most embarrassment among ministers who have targeted youth crime.

Since the scheme was launched about 15,600 young people under 17 have been on it. The scheme can be used as a condition of a community punishment involving tagging and surveillance by police, a condition of bail and the second stage of a drug treatment order.

The Youth Justice Board defended the findings in the report by explaining that the youths had been convicted of less serious crime than their original offence. A spokesman said: “We have significantly reduced the volume and the seriousness of reoffending, which was our aim.”

The report suggests that one reason for the high re- offending rate is because police are keeping the offenders under surveillance and can catch them committing crimes.

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