PERSISTENT young offenders across North Yorkshire face the risk of being electronically tagged from next week.

Tough new measures are being introduced county-wide from next Monday in a bid to cut the number of crimes committed by young tearaways.

Tagging will just be part of the £1.25m scheme - a 'carrot and stick' approach to deal with young repeat offenders.

The Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme is part of a national £45m initiative funded by the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales.

Board chairman Lord Warner launched the North Yorkshire scheme at a youth crime conference at York's Royal York Hotel yesterday. He said: "For the first time courts have the option of a longer, tightly-monitored highly-structured comprehensive alternative to custodial sentences. The programmes both protect the public and reform offending behaviour."

The initiative follows a successful bid for funding from both the York and North Yorkshire youth offending teams.

And the money will be spent on the intensive supervision and surveillance of 'hard-core' young offenders blamed for a large proportion of all local youth crime.

It will involve daily, one-to-one contact between young offenders and support workers as well as supervision measures like electronic tagging. It also includes reparation, training and education.

Surveillance can be for up to 24 hours a day, seven days a week and youngsters aged from ten to 17 can be included.

Although the target of the national scheme is to cut crime by persistent young offenders by five per cent, the target in North Yorkshire is a cut of ten per cent over the next three years.

The manager of the North Yorkshire Youth Offending Team, Peter Foulsham, said tackling crime in rural communities would be one of the key priorities.

"Having this intensive programme to work with the county's most persistent young offenders is a real boost for our local communities.