Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008

rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 3 March be approved. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I shall speak to both the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008 and the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland Consequential Amendments) Order 2008. Copies of the draft orders were laid before the House on 3 March. Like other noble Lords, I hope, I welcome the opportunity to consider both the main order and the consequential amendments order as part of the same debate. They will, however, be moved separately. Both orders are Orders in Council as this is not a devolved matter. Although that is not the issue for this debate—everyone knows the rules regarding the devolution of criminal justice—given the amount of time that these issues have been before the public, it is important that this House should consider the orders. Before I start on the actual orders I should refer to a correction slip which noble Lords may have seen associated with the draft order. The Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments felt that we should have included a slightly fuller text in the preamble and recital powers of the order. The correction slip provides this and will become part of the final order for printing if it is approved by Parliament. The main criminal justice order before us is one of the most important pieces of Northern Ireland criminal justice legislation to be brought before Parliament in many years. It provides a significant shift in the sentencing framework available to Northern Ireland’s courts. We know from the extensive consultations that we have undertaken in preparing this order that it has widespread support across Northern Ireland. The order changes the fundamental nature of imprisonment in Northern Ireland. It creates a new form of risk-based sentencing and release for those sentenced to prison. It creates tougher sentences; allows dangerous offenders to be locked up longer—some can be held indefinitely; and permits release only when it is safe to do so. It removes the automatic 50 per cent remission which has so long been a feature of imprisonment in Northern Ireland and replaces it with a custody and supervision regime. Prisoners will henceforth spend all the custodial time announced in court in prison followed by a period of statutory post-release supervision. The entire sentence is served. The order ensures that custody is reserved for those who most merit it and provides a balanced set of powers to the courts through new community-based options. Increased post-release supervision provides added protections and helps prisoners resettle, reintegrate into their communities, and, one hopes, move away from offending. The second half of this order is also significant. There are a range of new powers around road traffic law, alcohol, and knife crime, and a range of procedural aspects to make Northern Ireland’s criminal justice system more efficient. The order has its origins in a number of policy consultations and proposals carried out over a number of years. Building on a recommendation from the criminal justice review, a policy consultation was carried out in 2005 and a need for additional powers to deal with and manage dangerous violent and sexual offenders identified. A proposed draft Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2007 was then prepared and consulted on from November last year until January this year. The road traffic law proposals were subject to their own policy consultation, as were those on knife crime. Some 54 responses came in, which we consider to be particularly successful. The Northern Ireland Assembly—and I think this may be the first time I have been able to say this on an Order in Council—established an ad hoc committee to consider the draft, gave it detailed consideration and was in support of what the order is set out to achieve. The ad hoc committee was made up of all the main Northern Ireland parties, and all supported the sentencing package. A number of Ministers from the Northern Ireland Executive, including the First and Deputy First Ministers, also expressed support. The Probation Service supported the sentencing powers, as did the chief constable. The public, too, have supported our proposals. A major campaign resulted in a petition of some 35,000-plus signatures calling for the ending of automatic 50 per cent remission. Events themselves have also been a factor. There have been some very difficult cases in Northern Ireland in the past few years. The horrendous murder of Attracta Harron by an offender out on remission, now serving a life sentence with a whole life tariff, brought into sharp relief the need for a new form of prison sentence. Attracta’s widower is present to listen to our proceedings, as he was during the Commons consideration of the order. There have been a number of sex offender cases where post-release supervision and monitoring has been difficult. The gaps in our laws were made abundantly clear. A sentence was needed for serious violent or sexual offences, whereby release would not be automatic, dangerousness would have to be assessed, release would be controlled and post-release supervision enhanced. This draft order delivers such sentences and 50 per cent remission will disappear as a result of the order. The order has three major themes: public protection; community safety; and improving the criminal justice system. On public protection, the order creates two new sentences to deal with dangerous sexual and violent offenders. One is indeterminate—the indeterminate custodial sentence, or the ICS. The offender would not get out of prison until it is safe for him to be released and could be on licence for the rest of his life. The other is an extended custodial sentence, or the ECS, whereby the offender serves his custodial part and is then subject to an extended licence period, not for life but for up to a potential maximum of eight years. Once convicted, a full risk assessment is completed and, if the offender is found dangerous, one or other of these sentences must be imposed. Release will involve the newly created parole commissioners for Northern Ireland. They will assess prisoners and have safety and public protection as the focus of their work. They will be fully independent of government. Through the public protection sentences and the changes to standard imprisonment, automatic 50 per cent remission for sentenced prisoners will disappear. On community safety, prisoners will be subject to statutory supervision in the community and to recall if they fail to comply with conditions. The powers to deal with and manage sex offenders in the community are enhanced. The Multi-Agency Sex Offender Risk Assessment and Management—the MASRAM process—will now become statutory. A range of agencies will be required to work together and share information to increase protection and reduce risk posed by sexual and violent offenders. Powers will allow electronic monitoring or tagging of offenders in the community. That could be as a bail condition, a licence condition, or as part of a community order. Post-release supervision will provide an important level of protection and reassurance to communities, but it also provides continuity in offender management and helps prisoners to resettle into community life. All these ensure that offenders are properly supervised, managed and rehabilitated. The order tackles areas of specific and current concern to communities. It deals with knife crime; improves alcohol laws and under-age drinking, so often causes of anti-social behaviour, and improves road traffic law. Knife crime powers deal with both possession and supply of knives and offensive weapons, creating a strong package of sentences of up to four years’ imprisonment across the board. On alcohol, there are powers to deal with public drinking and the sale of alcohol to minors. Councils will be able to designate areas in consultation with police whereby drinking in public will be better regulated, and age restrictions on off-sales will be policed through a test purchase power. My honourable friend in the other place, Paul Goggins, has published guidance on how this will operate. During a period when I was a direct rule Minister in Northern Ireland and responsible in part for a policy on children and young people, I met with a group of young people who were on a week’s community involvement. I do not need to say where, as it is not important, but they were from both of the communities. They had a week together in which to discuss art projects, sport and so on. I faced them for about an hour. It took me 10 minutes or so to get them going asking questions, but then I could not get out of the room, after the hour. I asked them what the message should be and what the key things were. They raised two issues with me, both of which I have referred to. One of them is highly relevant to what I have just said about alcohol. They argued about how they were described in the press and told me that they wanted to get rid of the blue plastic bags. That was the first time I had heard that phrase used about the off-licence unmarked plastic bags, which are almost there to encourage underage drinking. The only way in which to deal with this is to have test purposes to ensure that licensing rules are being followed. So off-licences and off-sales are on notice. As I say, the youngsters that I met demanded some action on that because it gave them a bad name and saw their compatriots led into bad ways. On road traffic, additional police powers to tackle drink driving, speeding and seizure of vehicles, such as quad bikes or motorised scooters which can be a plague in some estates or communities, are created in the order. Sentences have been increased for driving while disqualified or without insurance, two offences which frequently see multiple offences coming before the courts. On the criminal justice system, one of the order’s aims is to ensure that the system works effectively and well. The right services and punishments need to be targeted at the right type of offender. We are expanding the police’s powers to attach conditions to bail, and prison law is modernised in a number of areas. For example, 17 year-old girls will be able to go to the juvenile justice centre rather than be held in an adult prison. We are expanding the use of live video links between prisons and courts, improving flexibility around the execution of arrest warrants, and creating more efficient systems to deal with breach proceedings. Perhaps one of the most significant improvements will be the power of the court to impose a form of community sentence on those who default on a fine. For too long we have seen numerous fine defaulters end up in prison—something that I and some Members of another place have always considered a ludicrous proposition. You can get the money back other ways; imprisoning those people is a complete waste of resources and does not assist at all. So this is a very helpful change. Prisons should be for the more serious offenders and the supervised activity order, managed in the community by the Probation Service, will be constructive, restorative and more effective in dealing with the problem of fine default. Two further points about resources and choices are important. In the consultation exercise many people sought assurances that the system could cope with this very substantial package. I assure your Lordships' House that the package of proposals can and will be properly resourced. Almost £14 million has been allocated for implementation. That includes £5 million for prisons, probation and tagging. The Probation Service alone will be appointing over 50 additional probation officers. A dedicated implementation team will take forward the proposals. Public protection sentences and the appointment of parole commissioners will be our first and most urgent priority. They will be in place in a matter of weeks with other powers being rolled out over the next year or so. Public protection is one of the key aims that the order sets out to achieve but we also need to maintain perspective about what legislation can do. Offenders make choices—for better or worse. The system can help them with their choices, help them resettle, supervise them and, where appropriate, manage the risk they present. We can put the powers in place, require compliance and supervision and do all that we can to reduce the risk, but what we cannot do is guarantee an end to crime, nor, sad to say, can we guarantee an end to serious sexual or violent crime. However, we are confident that this package will succeed. It fills many of the gaps identified in the current law. The focus of my speech this evening has been on the main order. The consequential amendments order also before the House is by and large a short technical piece to allow the main provisions to work in a UK context. It adds reference to the parole commissioners into House of Commons disqualification law and includes them in freedom of information legislation requirements. It also allows the new licensing regimes to transfer across the United Kingdom and deals with the International Criminal Court. In conclusion, I am pleased to be bringing before your Lordships' House today this package of sentencing powers to deal with dangerous violent and sexual offenders; to strengthen post-release supervision across the board; and to remove 50 per cent remission. As I said, it has been widely consulted on, and has the support of Assembly Members in Northern Ireland. I hope the day is not too far away when they will deal with these issues themselves. The legislation is ready and has been consulted on and the people of Northern Ireland do not deserve to have it delayed. I commend this order and the subsequent order, which I will move at the appropriate time. I beg to move. Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 3 March be approved. 16th report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments.—(Lord Rooker.)