Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

moved Amendment No. 4: 4: Clause 1, page 2, line 28, leave out ““or (b)”” The noble Lord said: The amendment raises intensive fostering, which is not to be confused with the normal fostering obligations that lie on a local authority for general welfare purposes. The evidence we have so far suggests that intensive fostering has great potential to keep a child out of custody, but does that only when it is properly implemented. The Government have pilot projects in, I think, three counties, the results of which are being analysed by the University of York. So far, the results are extremely encouraging. The real issue is the cost, because although intensive fostering is potentially very successful, it is extremely resource-consuming and therefore very expensive. What is more, the expense falls not on the criminal justice system and its budget, but on the local authority in the area where the child is located. When this matter was debated in another place the Minister, Mr Hanson, suggested that local authorities would have to bear no less than, on average, some £500,000 per county. Where is this money going to come from? Will it be diverted from the criminal justice system or will the resources devoted to other community orders be stretched further? It appears that a court cannot impose a fostering requirement without consulting the local authority, so there will be a financial incentive for the local authority to say that they are not in a position to provide intensive fostering facilities. The consequence might well be that the child will end up in custody. So a financial issue is at the heart of this potentially extremely successful arm of youth justice. I expect that between the stages of the Bill in another place and now the Government have not advanced very much in their thinking about how they will finance this, but they must surely see the dilemma here; clearly some local authorities, either because they are relatively wealthy or because they really believe in intensive fostering, are more likely than not to provide facilities and other counties will not. You might end up with a kind of postcode regime for this measure. In our submission, it would be a very great shame if that were to be its fate. Through the amendment I am urging the Government in approaching this issue to think a little more carefully and imaginatively than they have felt themselves capable of so far. I beg to move.