Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

We are now concerned with the conditions that can be attached to youth conditional cautions, as set out in Schedule 18 to the Bill. We have already made some criticisms of these provisions, in particular the limited age at which youth conditional cautions may be given. I remind noble Lords that a youth conditional caution is a caution with conditions attached for the purposes of, "““facilitating the rehabilitation of the offender … ensuring that the offender makes reparation for the offence””," and, "““punishing the offender””." There are a number of requirements. The offender must sign a document in which is set out the details of the offence, an admission that he has committed that offence and his consent to being given the youth conditional caution. If those conditions are breached, criminal proceedings may be instituted against him for the offence in question. He has already admitted it and has set out the details of the offence in the written statement. He will have no defence if proceedings are brought against him for the offence in question. It is therefore very important to look at the nature of the conditions that can be attached to the youth conditional caution to see whether they are reasonable and sensible in preventing his prosecution, which is what this schedule is all about. We object first to the condition that he pays a financial penalty under new Section 66A(4)(a). New Section 66C sets out what the penalties may be. They may not exceed £100, but the youth, as a condition of the youth conditional caution, is obliged to pay that financial penalty. We all know what that means for a youth of 16 or 17. He will not have the means to pay, so he is liable to go to his parents or to someone else to ask them to pay up on his behalf. If they fail to do that, he is in court with a cast-iron prosecution case against him. We submit to your Lordships that putting a financial penalty on these youth conditional cautions is not a sensible way to proceed. It may very well, and very quickly, lead to a breach and to the appearance of the offender in court. The second aspect in the conditions attached to these cautions with which we are concerned is the requirement that the youth should, "““attend for more than 20 hours in total, not including any attendance required by conditions attached for the purpose of facilitating the offender’s rehabilitation””." He may have a condition that requires him to attend an attendance centre of some sort for 20 hours for punishment and retribution, but any attendance required for the purpose of his rehabilitation has no limit. The conditional caution might impose on him a condition that, for rehabilitation, he attends for months. That condition is again liable to be breached and to lead to criminal proceedings where his written statement and admission of the offence are the evidence before the court. Youth conditional cautions no doubt have their place, provided that they can properly and relatively easily be complied with. There is no point in setting up an offender to fail. The financial penalty and the unrestricted time for which he may ordered to attend for rehabilitation purposes set that young person up to fail and therefore to have to appear in court. Certainly let us have alternatives to prison and to prosecutions. Let us have youth conditional cautions, but subject to conditions with which a person of 16 or 17 can reasonably comply. I beg to move.