Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, I support wholeheartedly the amendment in the name of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick. There is every reason why the House should support the amendments. The Government are to be congratulated on their attitude to the relevant provisions of the Act of 2003. It is very proper that the matter should be left to general judicial discretion rather than be made mandatory. On the other hand, I say with the greatest respect that the Government are failing to be loyal to their own logic in setting a threshold that is much too low. It is obvious that there is a relationship between the initial sentence threshold and the risk. When a court is considering the risk, it should ask what the best evidence is. The best evidence is the offence with which it is dealing: it is what the man has done. Therefore, for all those reasons, the amendment should receive the wholehearted support of the House.