Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I hear what the noble Lord says. I thought I had answered the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mayhew. It is sometimes difficult to aggregate figures, although we have the figures for legal aid, which I quoted. I am sorry, but £800,000 is still a considerable amount of money. My understanding is that, in the cases we are talking about, the test is refused if the offence is very minor, there is no likelihood of a custodial sentence, the youth is at the top of the age range and he or she understands court proceedings. I have said that the Legal Services Commission is going to undertake some research on consistency of approach. I am not aware that this is proving to be a huge administrative task, and in any case the LSC’s research may well pick up issues that we need to improve. Today, however, I am afraid I am going to disappoint your Lordships.