To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will provide open air work camps for younger offenders serving custodial sentences.

Purposeful work is an important part of the regime for young offenders. There are at present opportunities to undertake agricultural and horticultural work in the open air at 23 young offender institutions.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that her Department may to some extent be missing the point? There is general disgust at the short non-custodial sentences that are being passed because of the absence of space in prisons of various sorts. In view of the number of military establishments underused and basically secure, should not we use those—and, if need be, make use of military personnel, too—to enable us to stop the amazing amount of re-offending by those on non-custodial sentences?

There are tough and dirty jobs for youngsters who are on probation and in non-custodial care, so I would not necessarily accept my hon. Friend's strictures on that point. I repeat what my right hon. Friend told the House on Tuesday: if the prison population continues to rise, he will consider calling on the assistance of the military and, possibly, calling for the use of military accommodation.

Has it occurred to the Minister that the problem is that there are plenty of young people camped out in the open air, but that they do not have any work?

The question refers to young offenders. Those in young offender institutions are occupied satisfactorily, to a certain extent, in open air work.

rose——

Mr. Mellor. No, Mr. Marlow.

I am very flattered, Mr. Speaker.

What are we going to do about those young thugs and hooligans who have no respect for authority, no respect for law and order, no respect for property, no respect for elderly people and who terrorise communities? Is it not time that instead of having open air imprisonment we had an open air thrashing or open air stocks to stick them in?

I well understand my hon. Friend's outrage at the behaviour of some youngsters today. Had he been in his place on Tuesday, when my right hon. Friend made the opening speech on the Loyal Address, he would have heard him say that the Government would introduce a measure to deal with the young thugs, as my hon. Friend calls them, who indulge in joyriding, a practice which hon. Members in all parts of the House deplore; those young people will, therefore, be offending.

Is not it time that the Minister ignored some of the siren voices behind her? She knows that the peak age for offending is 18. The 16 to 18-year-old group is the very group that has been punished by the Government. They have been punished by being stripped of their ability to claim benefit and by the pushing down of the real value of their training allowance. They have been punished in terms of unemployment and homelessness. Is not it about time that we had some more positive policies? Then young people would respect the Government.

Is not it time that Opposition Members realised that there is an absolute necessity for young people to grow up with respect for the law, property and persons? There is absolutely no need for young people to commit crimes when they have available to them perfectly good training courses that have been provided by the Government and with Government money.

Does my right hon. Friend recall that until the Criminal Justice Act 1988 amended the law, the penalty for taking away a vehicle without consent was up to three years' custodial sentence? That penalty was reduced at the time to six months. Is it my right hon. Friend's intention to restore a custodial sentence of up to two years for that offence?

Yes, Sir.