What does the pledge mean?

Under current sentencing rules, courts must impose a mandatory referral order to a Youth Offending Team (YOT) on any youth with no previous convictions who pleads guilty to any imprisonable offence, unless the court is considering custody, discharge or Mental Health Act order. Courts can also refer a youth who has been convicted of a knife crime offence to a youth offending panel, which includes a member of the YOT.

YOTs are run by councils and work with young people to steer them away from crime. They are sometimes also called Youth Justice Services (YJS). They can consist of a range of officials, including police, probation officers and social workers. These teams run local crime prevention programmes in a bid to prevent offending.

In its manifesto, Labour pledged to make it mandatory for all children caught in possession of a knife to be referred to a YOT and receive some form of mandatory plan to prevent reoffending.

The pledge applies to England and Wales, as criminal justice is largely devolved in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

While the manifesto pledge did not spell out what is meant by “young people”, we have taken it to mean those under the age of 18 at the time of a finding of guilt, as this is the definition used in the Sentencing Council guidelines on youth justice.

What progress has been made?

We are rating this pledge as “in progress”, as the government has announced new guidance for police forces and YJS in England and Wales that says children caught carrying a knife must be given a “mandatory targeted plan to stop them reoffending”, and that police must refer “every child knife possession case” to YJS.

On 11 February 2026, the government announced: “Every child caught carrying a knife in England and Wales will be given a mandatory targeted plan to stop them reoffending”.

A press release said the plans will “address the root causes of a child’s offending”, such as potential exploitation by criminal gangs or childhood trauma, and that they could “be forced to attend mentoring to stay in education or social skills training to boost employability”.

The child’s progress with their plan will be monitored by YJS, and if the child doesn’t “engage with their plan or are judged to still be of risk to the public” the police will be “immediately” informed.

Sentencing, youth justice and international justice minister Jake Richards MP said on 12 February 2026 that this “new Government guidance” will apply to “all police forces and Youth Justice Services throughout England and Wales”.

The guidance says police should “alert the Youth Justice Service to the knife possession offence as soon as practicable after interaction with the child”, and the government considers the “maximum time” this should take to be one working day.

In the event of a child not engaging or complying with the terms of their intervention plan, the guidance says the police should “consider prosecution for the original offence”.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) told us that local teams will “begin implementing the guidance immediately”, and that “formal scrutiny of progress” will start from April 2026. It also said it will be a “guidance-based approach as this will be more effective in practice than legislation, which would require broad exemptions that limit enforceability”.

Mr Richards also said compliance will be monitored through YJS’ annual plans, new data requirements about Out of Court Resolutions collected by the Youth Justice Board and upcoming inspections by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

He also confirmed that the guidance was not statutory, but that YJS would be required to give it “due regard” as a condition of their funding.