Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (Amendment) Order 2008

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (Amendment) Order 2008. The noble Lord said: The last decade has seen a complete reform of the way in which the justice system deals with young people who offend. At every stage of the process, the Government have introduced measures aimed at steering the young person away from offending behaviour and into more worthwhile and positive activities. At the pre-court stage there are now, depending on the seriousness of the offence, a range of alternatives to prosecution in the criminal courts for those under 18, which involve principally reprimands and warnings. When the young person does go to court, we have introduced the referral order and a new range of community interventions, which will be replaced with and, I believe, improved by, the youth rehabilitation order under the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. When custody is unavoidable, we have brought in the new two-part custodial/community order, the detention and training order; and we have transformed custodial provision for under-18s, setting up discrete custodial estates for boys, in 2000, and girls, in 2006. At the heart of all these changes has been the Youth Justice Board; it was established by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 with a wide remit to advise the Secretary of State on matters relating to youth justice. Its role was expanded in April 2000, when it assumed responsibility for purchasing and commissioning custodial places and general oversight of the secure estate for children and young people. Section 41(6)(b) of the Crime and Disorder Act provides that the Secretary of State may by order provide that any function of his which is exercisable in relation to the youth justice system shall be exercisable concurrently with the board. To enable the board to exercise effectively its new functions in relation to the secure estate, the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales Order 2000 designated a wide range of concurrent functions. These included, for example, power to contract for the provision and running of secure training centres and a number of the powers in the Secure Training Centre Rules relating to the day-to-day running of centres. Secure training centres are not the only form of contracted-out secure accommodation in the under-18 estate. There are also two contracted-out young offender institutions—Ashfield, near Bristol, and Parc, near Bridgend. The contracts for these establishments have been managed by the Office for National Commissioning on behalf of the Secretary of State. In the case of Parc, we intend to continue that arrangement, as the establishment also accommodates young adults, by which I mean those aged 18 to 20, as well as adult offenders, although the Committee should be aware these offenders are kept separately from the under-18s. It makes sense for the ONC to retain the lead, with input from the Youth Justice Board on the management of the under-18 accommodation. Ashfield is a different case, because it accommodates only those serving juvenile sentences and remanded young people under 18. We believe that the Youth Justice Board is better placed to oversee management of the contract of a purely under-18 establishment and the main immediate purpose of the order is to give the board the necessary powers to do that effectively. Article 2(3)(c) fulfils that purpose, among other things. In that article, the concurrent powers given to the board in respect of contracted-out young offender institutions mirror the powers which the board can exercise in relation to contracted-out secure training centres. It will of course enable the board to let and manage contracts for contracted-out young offender institutions. The draft order also makes small additions to the concurrent powers that the board can exercise in relation to secure training centres. For instance, each centre is required to establish systems of privileges, incentives and sanctions appropriate to the classes of trainees and their ages, characters and circumstances. Each centre must also have a library and every trainee is allowed to have library books appropriate to his or her age and to exchange them. The systems of privileges, incentives and sanctions must be approved by the Secretary of State and the right to receive and exchange library books is subject to any directions he may give. These are operational functions for which the board is generally responsible and in relation to which it is well placed to exercise judgment. The draft order also makes two changes to the board’s responsibilities for placing young people in custody. It already decides placements for the great majority of under-18s sentenced to custody—those who receive detention and training orders. The order will permit the board, additionally, to make placements of offenders sentenced to be detained during Her Majesty’s pleasure under Section 90 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 and to long-term detention under Section 91 of that Act. In addition, under subsection (7A) of Section 23 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1969, young people whom the courts remand to the care of a local authority with a requirement that they be placed in secure accommodation may be placed in a secure training centre. Such placements at present require the Secretary of State’s consent. As the expertise on placements lies with the Youth Justice Board, it makes sense for the board to be able to give the necessary consent, so the order does this. Article 3 of the draft order is very similar in effect to Article 2. It expands references to ““the Secretary of State”” in Rule 13 of the Young Offender Institution Rules, which specifies to whom the governor of a young offender institution may disclose certain information relating to trainees, so as also to refer to, "““an officer of the Youth Justice Board””." We were advised that, as Rule 13 concerns the functions of the governor rather than of the Secretary of State, it was not a potentially concurrent function under Section 41(6) of the Crime and Disorder Act. It is therefore a consequential change. The effect of the change, however, is the same in that the information may be disclosed to the board in place of the Secretary of State. Finally, the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales Order 2000 contains a number of references to provisions in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. These have subsequently been consolidated into the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000. Paragraphs (1), (2) and (3)(a) and parts of paragraph (3)(c) of Article 2 update those references. Article 2(3)(b) makes a similar updating in relation to Section 16 of the Criminal Justice Act 1982, where the provisions have been consolidated into the Criminal Justice Act 2003. I commend the order to the Committee. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (Amendment) Order 2008. 29th Report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments.—(Lord Patel of Bradford.)