Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

The point about the youth conditional caution is that it is an out-of-court disposal aimed at reducing the increasing number of young offenders taken to court for relatively low-level offences, which is the point raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Stern. The amendment proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Thomas, would repeal subsection (4) of Section 66 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, which prevents a court imposing a conditional discharge on a young offender where he or she has received a final warning in the previous two years, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Where the court believes that there are such exceptional circumstances, it must state in open court that it is of that opinion and the reasons for believing that to be the case. The circumstances in which this arises are that the provision reflects the fact that we are talking about a young offender who may already have received several out-of-court disposals in the form of a reprimand for a first offence, a warning for a second offence and, potentially, a second warning for a third offence, if two years have passed since the first warning was delivered. Additionally, under the provisions in the Bill they might also have received a youth conditional caution. The likelihood is that the young person to whom we are referring has appeared in court after possibly admitting guilt to three or four offences. The warnings and the youth conditional cautions may well have had interventions and conditions attached to them, yet the young person has gone on to offend again. In those circumstances where a young offender has appeared in court for the first time, despite the failure of the interventions to which I have referred, it does not seem right for a court to be able to impose yet another relatively minor sanction on the young person unless it believes that there are exceptional circumstances which make it the right thing to do. By having appeared in court despite previous out-of-court disposals, a young offender has surely shown that something else is likely to be needed. Our worry with the amendment is that if you allow a conditional discharge within two years of receiving a warning or a youth conditional caution, it sends the signal that, even if you are brought before a court and convicted, after going through that process you may get a relatively minor sentence. There will always be a balance between wishing to have interventions that will work and will prevent reoffending, and showing young people that we are serious, which is why we have that condition.