Offender Management Bill

moved Amendment No. 116: 116: Clause 30, page 21, line 1, leave out paragraph (b) The noble Baroness said: The amendments in this group remove from the Bill two provisions consequential to Section 61 of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000. The section, which has yet to be commenced, abolishes the young adult sentence of detention in a young offender institution. I will explain briefly the purposes of subsection (5) and the other parts of Clause 30 we are proposing to remove as well as the purpose of Clause 31, and then say why we propose to remove them. When DYOI is abolished, young offender institutions may cease to be provided for young people over 18. If they were no longer provided, it would no longer be possible to transfer young people sentenced to a detention and training order to a young offender institution when they reached the age of 18. If that were indeed the outcome, it would be necessary to have a power to place them in prison, where contemporaries of theirs, who were 18 at the time of conviction, would be sent under existing legislation. Clause 30(5) would make it possible to place 18 year-old DTO detainees in that way. Although this is a purely consequential change, it has been the focus of some concern. Clearly, moving a young person who may be vulnerable into an adult establishment would be a serious step. The Government fully recognise that and have given assurances that proper safeguards would be put in place to ensure that transfer to prison would take place only in appropriate cases, with due consideration to the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights and to meeting the needs of vulnerable individuals. Nevertheless, concern persists, and it has been suggested that the Government were wrong to seek to make this change at this time. While I understand—and share—concern about the need to safeguard vulnerable young people, I am not sure how it could be wrong for the Government to seek to make their proposed legislation consistent with legislation that Parliament has already approved. But I accept that we will need to have a general discussion of custodial provision for young adults once the package of measures I announced in my Written Statement on 8 May has been evaluated. It will in any case be necessary to make some further legislative change before detention in a young offender institution can be abolished. Therefore, in spirit of goodwill and comity, the Government have accepted that the change that we proposed to make through subsection (5) and the related parts of Clause 30 can be considered at a later date. The purpose of Clause 31 is similarly to reflect the change made by the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 to the minimum age of imprisonment. Clause 31 alters the age at which certain sentences of detention, to which offenders under the age of 21 may be liable, can be converted into sentences of imprisonment. As with the changes proposed in Clause 30, we accept that this change can be considered at a later date. I hope that I have given considerable pleasure on this occasion to the noble Baroness, Lady Linklater. I beg to move