Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I thank the noble Baroness for her amendment. Most of us in the Committee understand about the passing of time. On whether young people do to the same extent, I share the noble Baroness’s doubts. More seriously, this is a serious amendment, which we want to debate seriously. We appreciate that quite a lot of sentences on young offenders are spent in half the time that they would be for an adult but, as the noble Baroness conceded, that is not the case for every sentence; absolute or conditional discharges, which may be relevant here, are such examples. However, we do not think that it should be the case for youth conditional cautions, as I shall try to explain. Schedule 19 sets the rehabilitation period for adult conditional cautions and youth conditional cautions at three months. We have chosen this rehabilitation period because it is the mid-point between, on the one hand, the period specified in this Bill for simple cautions—that is, those that are not conditional cautions—reprimands and warnings and, on the other, the existing period for the least serious court disposal, an absolute discharge. In other words, a simple caution, reprimand or warning has no rehabilitation period; for the absolute discharge—the lowest that you can get in court—a six-month period has to pass. On the basis that our proposals for simple cautions, reprimands and warnings enter into law, they will be spent immediately, whereas an absolute discharge is already spent after six months for all offenders of whatever age. In our view, the rehabilitation period for both adult and youth conditional cautions should therefore be three months. The rehabilitation period of three months reflects the fact that it is an out-of-court disposal—that is, a disposal that is less serious than the lowest court disposal, an absolute discharge. As a youth conditional caution is intended to be given in cases that are not serious enough for court but are more serious than a reprimand or warning, which according to the Bill will become spent immediately, it makes sense that the rehabilitation period is midway between the two. The amendment would reduce the period for the youth conditional caution to half that of the adult, to make it six weeks. However, we would draw an analogy with the rehabilitation period for a conditional discharge, which is a year. The rehabilitation period of that sentence would not be halved for a young offender. Therefore, this being analogous to a discharge, it is sensible to follow the same principle for a youth conditional caution when compared to an adult conditional caution. The rehabilitation period also reflects the fact that we consider that the majority of conditions to be attached to a youth conditional caution are likely to have been completed not necessarily in a six-month period but within the three-month period. That is why we do not think that six weeks is appropriate in this case.