Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

In encouraging my noble friend once again to take seriously the thoughts behind the amendment, it occurs to me as a lay man in these matters that—to take his own words—what is surely encouraging for our determination to keep young people wherever possible out of prison is the maximum flexibility for the use of judgment and imagination. The more stipulations and details one writes into the conditional use of the arrangements that there may be, the more it undermines this creative approach—I am not ashamed to use the word—to the rehabilitation of the youngster. I am uneasy, therefore, about what is proposed and I hope that my noble friend can reassure us.