THE number of young criminals who are reoffending is on the increase in York, according to a new report.

Despite the efforts of the city council's Youth Offending Team (YOT), the number of young people who have received a community penalty but who go on to commit further crimes has risen by 10.6 per cent since the year 2000.

The number of young people who have received a pre-court disposal and who then reoffend has risen by 6.1 per cent since 2000. A pre-court disposal is when a young person receives a police reprimand or final warning for a first or second offence if they admit guilt when they are arrested. Pre-court disposal offending rates were 11.6 per cent more than the team's target for the year. Community penalty offending rates had risen to a massive 70.6 per cent - 15.6 per cent more than the team's target. But the number of young people who reoffend after being in custody had seen a significant drop of 41.7 per cent since 2000, with a quarter now going on to commit further offences.

The team's Jill Holbert said in a report that the reoffending figures were "concerning".

She blamed the poor statistics on the fact that a significant proportion of the young people had reached 18 during the monitoring period, which meant the team was no longer working with them.

The success of North Yorkshire Police's Operation Delivery programme - with its increased detection rates - may also have contributed to the trend.

She added: "The YOT's performance in this area is likely to have been compounded by staff vacancies and also budgetary constraints which have affected capacity within the team."

Ms Holbert's report - on all areas of the team's performance over the past year - is due to be discussed at a meeting between City of York Council leader Steve Galloway and his advisory panel, which includes opposition leader Coun Dave Merrett, next Tuesday. York's Youth Offending Team is ranked 48 out of 155 in England and Wales.

Its performance in preventing youth crime has been better in other areas, with a two-thirds reduction in young people committing burglary since 2001.

Pete Dwyer, the council's assistant director of children's services, commented in the report: "The past year has been a challenging one for the YOT where both the embracing of the breadth of the agenda facing the team ... has on occasions stretched the resources available."

Updated: 10:33 Monday, May 17, 2004