Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

It will not change it in itself, but it will make one jot of difference. They have to be rigorously monitored and they have to provide confidence. That is the point that I am trying to get across—that enforcement action will be taken when necessary. That is what we do by writing it into the Bill, so that everyone knows where they stand. We are determined to ensure that the youth rehabilitation order and, indeed, all community penalties, are rigorously enforced, as we are determined to ensure that they are widely used by the courts. We want them to be widely used by the courts and accepted as robust by the public, as do the noble Earl and the noble Baroness. It is often a challenge for some young people to comply with some of the most basic elements of a community order—the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, made that point clearly—such as being somewhere at a set time. That is recognised in the flexibility allowed for in the breach process, as the responsible officer makes the decision about what is a reasonable excuse. That allows that officer to take account of the young person’s age and maturity. It also allows the officer to take into consideration the fact that the young person may be dependent on a third party—for example, a parent—to get them to an appointment. I assure the Committee that our expectations are that current practice, as governed by national standards, will and should remain unchanged. Youth Justice Board national standards provide more detailed guidance to responsible officers to help them assess what is a reasonable excuse. We all know that there has to be a balance between enforcement and local management discretion, especially where young people are concerned, but action must be taken where the breaches can no longer be considered as minor infringements—where there is no reasonable cause for them. This is not about alarm clocks failing to be set at the right time for an early appointment; this is not about a young person missing an appointment because he or she is in hospital; this is not about punishing young people because their parent or guardian could not or would not drive them to an appointment. This is about those occasions where a young person refuses to engage with the terms of their order. That is why local discretion is built into the procedure. Local youth offending team workers will remain responsible for the orders. It is they who know how best to manage compliance based on a number of factors which need to be taken into account, and they will have the knowledge of the young person for whom they are responsible. Our case is that we must ensure that there is a common procedure which is clear and transparent to all. We are satisfied that there are sufficient safeguards to avoid young offenders being returned to court for minor infringements, and we believe it right and appropriate that a clear standard be set out in the Bill on when breach action must be taken. The noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, said that he believed that that would inevitably result in more court appearances and more young people remanded in custody. All that the breach arrangements do is codify existing national standards. We do not expect there to be any change to existing practice. As I have repeated several times, the arrangements allow for reasonable excuse, which can be taken into account. Therefore, we do not expect the result of including that in the Bill to be additional demands on courts or an increase in the use of custody for breach. I am sorry that the noble Lord and I are probably not in agreement on that. I have attempted to explain why we do not agree with the amendment.