Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

If no one else is going to speak, may I say how sympathetic I am to what the noble Baroness has said? Do we not need to say in this House and in Parliament that in this nation of ours we have far too many children and young people in custody? Surely the aim of legislation should be to assist us to turn that culture around and move in a new direction. The issue was raised in the report of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, which says: "““We note the Government’s statement that it strongly believes that custody for young people should only be used as a last resort. However, we note that in the Government’s response to our predecessor Committee’s recommendation, it said””—" and so forth. It continued: "““As presently drafted, however, there is nothing in the Bill to require that a YRO with ISS be the first resort, before custody, other than in exceptionally serious cases … In our view, such a requirement would be an important additional safeguard to ensure that custody of children is only used as a last resort””." That is why the amendment raises an issue that the Government need to address. For a number of years, my wife had professional work in the field of children held in custody. We know that the behaviour of some children and young people is deeply challenging to society. The easy thing to do, dare one say, is to whisk them out of society rather than think of other means of addressing the issues. We also know that custody is the place in which the highest safeguards have to be set out if the interests of children who have been locked away are to be protected. I shall be very interested to hear the Minister’s response to the amendment. It is important and it will be good to hear about the Government’s commitment to moving in these directions.