Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I am most grateful to the Minister for his reply. Like the Prison Service, the Probation Service is under tremendous pressure. If I have understood him correctly, the main motive for this provision is to take some of the pressure off the Probation Service by requiring these three hurdles—the three fines—to be leapt before a community order can be imposed. Essentially, a resources factor is driving the Government’s approach to this clause. I am really asking the Government whether that is the right way to fetter the discretion of the magistrates. They have to deal with individual cases and there will be circumstances in which new subsection (1A)(b) under Clause 12(5) will fetter their discretion in a way that they will, inevitably, consider wholly inappropriate. We take the view that discretion should be retained to decide on whether a community disposition should be made, irrespective of the number of times that fines had been levied previously. Given that view, would the Government be attracted by an alternative approach, whereby guidance is issued rather than there being a legal requirement under the Bill?