The government has abandoned plans to scrap the Youth Justice Board.

Its demise was outlined in the Public Bodies Bill as part of the government’s ‘bonfire of the quangos’, but the plan faced strong opposition in parliament, and had threatened to derail the passage of the bill.

Announcing the reprieve, justice minister Lord McNally said the government realised that the future of the Youth Justice Board ‘is an emotive issue’. He said the government had thought that now an effective youth justice system was in place, the functions of the YJB were no longer required and its functions could be brought back in-house under direct ministerial accountability.

But he said the government had listened to the debate in both houses of parliament and to the points raised in the public consultation, and acknowledged the ‘considerable opposition’ to the proposal to abolish the YJB.

He said: ‘I must be clear though, that the abolition has never been about saving money - the Ministry of Justice does not have major savings contingent on its abolition. That is why we are no longer pursuing the abolition of the YJB as part of this bill.’

McNally added: ‘I want to be absolutely clear that this government remain committed to maintaining a distinct focus on the needs of children and young people in the youth justice system.’

He said the government recognised that, since its establishment by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the YJB has helped to transform the youth justice system - overseeing the establishment of local youth offending teams; reducing offending and re-offending; and driving up standards in young offender institutions.

He said the government wants to ‘build on the strengths’ of the YJB, but still believes there should be more direct ministerial accountability and involvement in youth justice and that there is ‘strong case’ for reform of the board.

Sadiq Khan MP, Labour’s shadow justice secretary, welcomed the government’s ‘long overdue change of mind’.

He said: ‘The YJB does an important job battling to reduce youth offending. It has a proven track record in reducing crime, which is why it was madness for the government to want to abolish it and why Labour and so many groups have campaigned for its survival with such determination.’

But he warned that the YJB’s work is being undermined by ‘severe cuts’ to youth offending teams, which ‘risk the progress’ that has been made in reducing youth offending.

Law Society president John Wotton said: ‘In our response to Public Bodies Bill consultation in October we stated that we were very much opposed to the abolition of the YJB on the grounds that is independent of government and the MoJ and the Board has built up a great deal of expertise in the specialist area of youth justice that we feared would be lost were it to have been subsumed in the MoJ.

‘Therefore we are very pleased that it has had a reprieve.’

The decision to save the YJB came shortly after another u-turn over plans to axe the post of chief coroner.