Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I do not think so because other legislation relates to that point. I have already referred to the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, which deals with the welfare of the child. It is difficult to put a set of principles in the Bill when other pieces of legislation relate to the overall points I have made. I know that this is complicated, and it is sometimes frustrating that not everything is in one place in the legislation. That is probably the very point that the noble Baroness, Lady Stern, seeks to make. New subsection (2) in Clause 9 states: "““The court must have regard primarily to the principal aim of the youth justice system, that is, to prevent offending””." In addition, new subsection (3)(b) in Clause 9 refers to the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, which takes into account the welfare of the child. Much of the debate has concerned what action the Government have taken to improve the welfare of the child—which is important—to prevent reoffending and to help with rehabilitation. I believe that the Government deserve credit for the changes that have been made in the past 10 years. We have introduced the Youth Justice Board, which has given a separate focus to youth justice matters, as well as local youth offending teams. Since noble Lords are always happy to quote organisations’ criticisms of our efforts, it is worth noting that the Audit Commission described youth offending teams as, "““a good example of a flexible, multi-disciplinary approach to service delivery from which other public sector partnerships could learn””." I pay tribute to them. The Youth Justice Board has delivered significant achievements; it has improved victim and community involvement and introduced new programmes to support interventions and court orders such as the intensive surveillance and supervision programme. I think that that is part of what the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, wanted in relation to the young men he referred to. We have reduced delays from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders. Again, that is a very important early intervention, which tries to stop offenders from going down the wrong path. We have seen, in the 1998 Act, the introduction of parenting orders which acknowledge the key role played by the family in the development of young people. Of course we need to do more, and surely the purpose behind the range of court penalties introduced by the youth conditional caution is an example of doing so. We are also seeking to extend the use of youth referral orders by allowing one to be made on a second conviction when the young person concerned pleads guilty and has not had a referral order before. We see that as a very effective community sentence. The noble Lord, Lord Hylton, is right to emphasise the importance of restorative justice. I am a committed supporter of restorative justice, particularly for young people. Restorative justice and reparation is a thread running through the youth rehabilitation orders and can be included in the programme’s activity requirement as unpaid work. The reparation order will remain a separate sentence beneath the youth rehabilitation order. We will also be piloting a new out-of-court disposal—a youth restorative disposal which will also be below the YRO but allow a young person to apologise for committing an offence and to take responsibility for their actions. We will debate in detail the construct of youth rehabilitation orders. There is no doubt that preventing offending in the first place is the best way of tackling youth offending. Preventing young people entering the criminal justice system has to be the cornerstone of the Government’s youth crime strategy. The noble Baroness, Lady Stern, asked me about the joint responsibility between my department and the Department for Children, Schools and Families—a very helpful development in government responsibilities. We are still at the early stages of making it work effectively but I have no doubt that it is a very important change. I hope it leads to ensuring that children’s services generally are co-ordinated and that the youth justice system works much more effectively. Many noble Lords are interested in the issue of restraint in juvenile settings, a matter we debated some months ago when I brought the statutory instrument to your Lordships’ House. As noble Lords will know, an independent joint review is being undertaken and we have to await the outcome. The age at which young people can be brought into court later is an issue we will discuss later. We will discuss the whole question of thresholds, and I welcome that. As I listened to noble Lords’ comments, I found myself in agreement with the philosophy and sentiments they expressed. We are concerned about the number of young people currently in custody. When young people are in custody, we want to ensure that the emphasis is very much on the prevention of reoffending and on rehabilitation. We have seen improvements in some of the educational programmes, but we need to do more. We have to ensure that when a young person leaves a custodial setting there is proper liaison and integration with services back in the community. That is why the link with the Department for Children is so important. At the same time, we believe that we have got the principles of the system right, with the emphasis on reoffending. I have no doubt that we will come back to this as we go through the Bill, and at a later stage. At this stage, I thank noble Lords for a very helpful debate.