Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

We are very grateful to the noble Baroness for raising the important issue of a breach of a youth rehabilitation order. As we understand them, the amendments aim to take away from the Crown Court the power to deal with a breach initially and ensure that all proceedings for a breach where the offender is under 18 are commenced in the youth court. These are very important issues and we need to get them right so that the youth rehabilitation order establishes itself as a robust community sentence which enjoys public confidence. We note the general desire to restrict the role of the Crown Court in the breach process. However, we believe that we need the flexibility provided in the Bill to allow cases to be transferred to the appropriate court for the breach to be dealt with proportionately. Where a Crown Court has sentenced a young offender to a youth rehabilitation order, I believe it is appropriate and sensible for the Crown Court to have the power to refer any breach or other proceedings back to the youth court. The most serious cases involving young people are heard before the Crown Court. Examples of offences where a juvenile can be dealt with by the Crown Court are homicide or very serious offences where an adult would be liable to a maximum sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment or more, where a young offender is assessed as dangerous and has been convicted of a sexual or violent offence listed in Schedule 15 to the 2003 Act, or where a young person is jointly charged with an adult. If the offence warranted being tried in the Crown Court because of its seriousness and the youth rehabilitation order had been breached on several occasions—the noble Baroness will know better than I do about the warnings set out in the Bill, which we will debate shortly—or there had been one serious breach, it would be right for this to be brought back before the Crown Court, as a custodial sentence for the original offence of more than two years might be necessary and the youth court would not be able to impose that. I rely for that argument on the excellent speech in Committee of the honourable Member in another place, Mr Burrowes, who is on the opposition Front Bench. He said about cases of young persons coming before a Crown Court: "““Naturally any such case is serious and should only exceptionally be dealt with using a youth rehabilitation order, so we are talking about the exceptional cases that can be dealt with in the community, rather than about someone who has been convicted of a serious offence and dealt with by imprisonment””. " No doubt speaking for his party he says: "““We are concerned that in such cases the sentencer should have full control of the order and be involved in its enforcement. We therefore welcome Paragraph 35 which gives the Crown court direct discretion and allows it to be involved in the order’s enforcement””." He went on to say, "““Indeed it could be taken further””. [Official Report, Commons, Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill Committee, 25/10/07; col. 258.]" We are grateful for that support and I hope that support is here tonight as well However, it may be best for the breach to be dealt with not by the Crown Court, but by the youth court or the magistrates’ court. A young offender may have been dealt with by the Crown Court as a co-defendant of an adult, or another juvenile being dealt with for a more serious offence. Where the Crown Court has made a Youth Rehabilitation Order for the young person, then it might, depending on the circumstances, be entirely proportionate and reasonable for the Crown Court to direct that any further breach proceedings should be dealt with in the youth court. It is clearly preferable, in these circumstances, that the Crown Court should have the power to direct that the youth court deal with any proceedings that may arise as a result of breach. Also, the youth court retains the right to refer cases back to the Crown Court, where they deem that the case warrants the more onerous sentencing powers of the higher courts. We have given the Crown Courts this power because we think it would be disproportionate in every instance to retain the case in the Crown Court and impose an unnecessary burden on that higher court. We accept that youth courts have the expertise in dealing with young people. Where the Crown Court wishes to refer the matter to the youth court to deal with, it is right that it should have the power to do so. We also believe it right that the Crown Court retains the power to have breach proceedings brought back before it where it may have taken a risk in making a Youth Rehabilitation Order for a very serious offence. Amendment No. 33 would remove the power to amend the Youth Rehabilitation Order on breach and restrict the youth court to either imposing a fine or resentencing In addition, because every case that might be heard in the Crown Court would first have to be heard in a youth court, the matter of bail would have to be considered. Therefore, it could lead to an increase in the use of custody if there are delays in court appearances. We do not believe that that is an acceptable position. For those reasons, having thanked the noble Baroness for raising this important issue, we ask her to withdraw her amendment.