The Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) has published a follow-up report considering progress made by the Department of Justice and Youth Justice Agency (YJA) since a highly critical 2017 report.

The Department and the YJA agreed a new strategic plan to implement change called Transitioning Youth Justice in early 2019.

However, Kieran Donnelly CB, the Comptroller and Auditor General, said Transitioning Youth Justice “is not a fully developed transformation strategy” and there is “currently no clearly defined end-state design for how the entire youth justice system will work”.

Although the Department and the YJA “have made progress since our initial report”, the work to date “does not meet the strategic needs identified in 2017” for this and other reasons.

Commenting on the report, Mr Donnelly said: “The system is in the early stages of reform, developing new ways of working with young people. It is perhaps too soon to judge, but the evidence of progress is patchy so far.

“While the regime of care at Woodlands remains praiseworthy, it is not yet having an impact on reoffending rates. Without investment in these fundamental elements of transformation, there is undoubtedly a risk to the success of Transitioning Youth Justice.”