Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I gladly added my name to the amendment alongside those of the noble Baroness, Lady Stern, and the noble Lord, Lord Judd, who always have important things to say to us. I add my voice to theirs, for this is a very important issue for us to discuss at the outset of the Bill. It should help to clarify the overarching principles which inform the shape of the Bill and Government’s vision for the way in which we deal with children who offend in this country. It was widely commented on all sides of the House at Second Reading that the Bill seemed to lack a theme or any such overarching vision, so this is perhaps the moment to try to tease out what should guide our thinking and practice when we legislate for those children we are so concerned about, in the interests of justice, the children and our society. The distinction between principles and purposes means that the former are philosophical and the latter more practical, but they are closely intertwined. The Bill refers to purposes but nowhere to principles. It is clear that at every international level where principles are laid down—I have in mind the UNCRC and the Beijing Rules, in particular—the one overriding principle is that the welfare and best interests of the child must be the primary consideration. Indeed, Article 3 of the UNCRC states that it is an obligation. When the Bill considers the purposes in sentencing, the fact that this principle is not explicitly stated as being at the heart of the youth justice system gives real cause for concern, particularly because so much flows from it in terms of decisions to be made in youth justice and children in trouble. It is a glaring omission. It should not be an add-on, nor a purpose along with others, but the overarching principle. Public attitudes to children are in large measure influenced by our sentencing policy, particularly when we are dealing with children in trouble. We have worked very hard in this country during the past few years on provisions for children and families, and I commend the Government for that. However, something seems to happen when troubled children become children in trouble—and attitudes do change. We then become, through many of the agencies which deal with children and young people, far more punitive, retributive and demonising of young people, which is reflected in particular in our attitudes to policing, sentencing and even schooling in the management of our difficult, disruptive, disturbed and disturbing youngsters. The result is that we are developing a far more alienated, demonised and difficult population of young people, who we then forget are still children like our own. Children, as has already been affirmed today, must be treated differently from adults. They are so physically, psychologically and experientially. The Beijing Rules require that the juvenile justice system emphasise the well-being of the juvenile. The Children Act 1989 can show us the way, with, for example, the child-in-need assessments, a welfare checklist and a common assessment of each young person. When we talk generally about custody being a sanction of last resort for all offenders, it is even more acutely true for children and must be for the shortest possible time. We will discuss in detail during the passage of the Bill how this is not, in reality, the case in Britain today, but we must start by at least affirming this principle in the Bill. Ultimately, we are talking about a profound shift, not simply in processes and procedures, but in the attitudes of all of us, including the authorities and the courts. I remind the House once again that, in another part of the United Kingdom, with another legal system, no child prisons exist as they do in England, and children do not enter the criminal justice system until they are 16. In Scotland, we have the children’s hearings systems and the children’s panels, which see and seek to meet the needs of any child in trouble as they address their deeds. Here I declare an interest; I was a children’s panel member for eight years and participated in a system of which we are very proud. There are also some very impressive, welfare-oriented, secure children’s homes, all of which we can learn from. The records in England show that in the STCs—our child prisons—children have died from restraint-related incidents; one has even died in the course of being restrained. These children are, as we constantly remind each other, the most deprived in our society and their reoffending rate is the highest of all. We have already heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Stern, how shamefully we compare with other countries in our treatment of young offenders; but we do not need comparisons to know that this record is totally unacceptable and is a million miles from treating children "““with humanity and respect for his or her inherent human dignity””—" the last principle in the amendment. Finally, I add my concerns about what I call the principle of probity. If we indeed legislate for a real shift from prison to an expansion of community-based penalties—which is, I think, the presumption of the Bill—that provision must exist. Yet today all the agencies in the community that would be expected to deliver these alternatives, including probation and many other agencies, have been required to cut their current provision—far less expand it—with all the planning, manpower and huge costs that that implies. Can the Government reassure us that all that we are legislating for in the Bill can be delivered and that the balance between prison building and community investment is reversed? Otherwise, we are merely building castles in the air and deceiving ourselves and the country.