Police and Justice Bill

As I made clear, this is a probing amendment to meet the requirements of the all-party group, to which the noble Lord’s comments will not come as a surprise. The difficulty is that all of us have noted the Government’s split personality. On some occasions 16 to 18 year-olds are treated as adults but on other occasions they are treated as juveniles. On occasions such as this we are not sure exactly how they will be treated. I accept that those under 18 have every bit as much of a facility to use computers in an unwelcome way as anyone over 18. They know a heck of a lot more about it than I would do; not that I would want to learn how to misuse information technology—I leave that to the Government and their plans for ID cards. On that note, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 39, as amended, agreed to. Clause 40 [Unauthorised acts with intent to impair operation of computer, etc]: