Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, I am grateful for that elucidation. I do not have a specific answer, but I will look into it. It may well have to do with matters that are regarded as confidential. I do not know, but perhaps I can come back to the noble Baroness on that. The noble Baroness, Lady Miller, asked me about Oakhill secure training centre. The report by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons is serious and we have considered it carefully. It undoubtedly reflects very serious problems that the centre faced. I am glad to say that I understand that the centre has stabilised and levels of disruption have reduced. The Youth Justice Board is closely monitoring it and managing the numbers of young people placed in it. It is carefully considering every placement to ensure that young people accommodated at Oakhill are safe and secure. G4S, which is responsible for the centre, has been asked to develop an action plan in relation to the recommendations raised by the inspection. There is no complacency on that matter. A number of noble Lords spoke about the tragedy of death or self-harm in custody. I echo what they said. They will know that the Youth Justice Board has introduced new policies and practices to improve safeguarding and to help to prevent suicide in custody. That involves counselling, support groups and specialised psychological interventions as well as general healthcare and welfare, purposeful activity and the appointment of suicide prevention co-ordinators in all establishments. The noble Baroness, Lady Stern, mentioned Section 34 of the Offender Management Act 2007. I have answered a Parliamentary Question on that—at least, it will soon be answered. My understanding is that Section 34, as she said, gave the Secretary of State power to extend the range of types of establishment in which young people serving detention training orders may be accommodated. I understand that the Youth Justice Board is looking at the scope for and practical implications of such an extension. I hope that that gives her the full answer that she called for. Advice has miraculously turned up about the PCC manual. It is not in the public domain because it is an instructors’ manual. There is a risk that people might use the information gained in a way that put others at risk. I am happy to respond rather more fully to the noble Baroness on that point. My noble friend’s amendment is most extensive and I congratulate him on his drafting skills. However, there are severe practical problems with its implementation. He proposes that anyone under 20 who receives a custodial sentence should be placed in local authority secure accommodation—a secure children’s home. It would apply to a very wide age range—considerably wider than that of young people who may be tried in a youth court. There would be real concerns, for instance, about placing 19 year-olds and 10 year-olds in the same establishment. Local authorities are already required to provide secure accommodation, but its volume has declined in recent years. There are currently fewer than 400 places in secure children’s homes in England and Wales. The majority of them are used by the Youth Justice Board to accommodate vulnerable young people who have been sentenced to custody. It would be impossible to accommodate all under-18s sentenced to custody in local authority secure accommodation, let alone 18 and 19 year-olds, whom the new clause also covers. All is not lost. My noble friend Lord Adonis, who is sitting beside me, detailed some of the major improvements in the youth justice system in our recent debates on his Bill. I do not want to repeat what my noble friend said in those debates, because many noble Lords took part in that discussion, but it signals an acceptance by the Government and the Youth Justice Board that there are significant challenges in the current estate and that there is more that we need to do. We need to improve provision, but we should not underestimate the improvements that have taken place since the Youth Justice Board was established. For instance, let us look at some of its current priorities. It is concentrating on getting better provision for 15 and 16 year-old boys, who are more vulnerable; a new unit is being developed at Wetherby YOI. All 15 and 16 year-old girls were moved out of prison accommodation by the end of 2003. Five new special units for 17 year-old girls have been developed within the Prison Service estate but entirely separate from adults and young adults. As I said, there has been the development of joint work with the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the work of the Youth Justice Board, as well as the development of the Children’s Plan and the youth crime action plan. All those are symbols of a determination to meet the challenges that noble Lords have set. If I cannot reply in the affirmative to my noble friend’s amendment, I hope that he will accept that I recognise the concerns that he has expressed. I pay tribute to people working in the youth custodial setting for the challenges that they face. I understand my noble friend’s frustration, but changes have been made and further improvements will be made. I believe that, at the end of the day, we all share the concern to ensure that these young people are given as much opportunity as possible to be set on the right path for a good life ahead.