Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

The noble and learned Baroness, who has great experience which the Committee knows well, asked why it matters what the public think. It is important that there should be public confidence in the sentencing process, whether it concerns adults—no one, I think, would deny that it matters as far as adults are concerned—or when young people are involved, too. If the public lack confidence in the proposals that are being set out—and nearly all of them are intended to keep young people out of custody—and think that, somehow, there will never be any eventualities when young people go to custody, however much their offences might deserve it, then we are all in trouble, and the sentencing system that may then develop is something that no one, particularly anyone who has spoken in this Committee, would want to see.