To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) whether it is Government policy that individuals under the age of 18 years convicted of a serious offence will be dealt with primarily by children's services in the future; (211553)

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what plans he has to incorporate work with young offenders into local authority children's services; (211867)

The Children's Plan set out that we would publish a Youth Crime Action Plan that would examine what a more effective approach to prevention would look like and how to strengthen the approach we are taking to offending by young people. As part of this work we are examining a range of options that look at the roles of different agencies locally in tackling youth crime and our proposals will be set out in the forthcoming Youth Crime Action Plan.

Many areas are already taking steps to closely integrate the work of their youth offending services with wider services for children and we have been looking at the role that children's services play in prevention of offending and re-offending. We have not conducted any specific research into the effects on public confidence on the policy options but we will be using the Youth Crime Action Plan to seek views from the public and practitioners on the proposals.