Serious Crime Bill [HL]

It is clear from the number of noble Lords and noble and learned Lords who have spoken that it might be advantageous if I contextualise where we are and how these orders will work. The orders are preventive measures, and perhaps I may explain why. Regrettably, and particularly with serious crime, serious criminals are generally those who will commit crimes again and again. I will check this, but the figures show that around 85 per cent of very serious criminals are recidivists. When they come out of prison, they go back to committing more crimes, in a way that is complex and difficult. The task is not only simply to catch and convict them of a particular crime, but also to try to prevent them from committing further crimes, to interdict that criminal behaviour and to look at the methodology that they adopt and try to target a preventive order that makes it more difficult for them to perpetrate those or similar crimes again.