Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, your Lordships’ House owes a great debt to the noble Baroness, Lady Falkner, for tabling the amendment. We have debated a great deal the damage that is done to children who are placed in custody, but we have talked about it in general terms of principle. The noble Baroness has introduced an amendment that would specifically limit the powers of the court to put children in custody except in well defined circumstances. She is to be congratulated on that. My hesitations about the amendment are not about the approach, which is excellent, but about the restrictions in proposed new Section 152A. Like the noble Lord, Lord Monson, and I think the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, I think that those are just too restrictive. I would like to see in the amendment a more graduated approach to the restrictions, particularly bearing in mind that the Bill introduces the youth rehabilitation order, which gives the court a great deal more flexibility. By saying that, I would not in any way like the noble Baroness to think that I thought that her drafting efforts were in vain.