Coroners and Justice Bill

I rise to support Amendment 151, which was so eloquently spoken to by the noble Lord, Lord Carlile of Berriew. I shall speak to my Amendment 154 and, I regret, oppose Amendment 160. Amendment 154, standing in my name and that of my noble friend Lady Murphy, seeks to restore the Law Commission’s proposal that courts could consider developmental immaturity in under-18s as a defence permitting a less onerous sentence than murder. I have listened with interest to what my noble and learned friend Lord Lloyd of Berwick said on this point and I will read carefully what he said. Perhaps the first point to make is that we treat children differently before the law. That might be why it is appropriate to think of under-18s as being treated differently in these circumstances. I apologise if my drafting is faulty. I hope the Minister will be good enough to speak in her reply to the spirit of the amendment. I am most grateful to Lord Justice Toulson, whose recent speech to the Michael Sieff Foundation inspired the amendment. I urge the Minister to reinstate the Law Commission’s proposal, which had the backing of the NSPCC, the judges of the Central Criminal Court, the criminal subcommittee of the Council of Her Majesty’s Circuit Judges, the Criminal Bar Association, the Youth Justice Board, the Law Society and the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The Law Commission’s report stated: ""5.137 Our recommendation is, therefore, likely to affect only a very few cases, and only by reducing the crime from top-tier homicide to middle-tier homicide. However, for the few cases that do meet the criteria, we believe our recommendation meets requirements of justice recognised as fundamental in civilised legal systems across the world"." The Minister may say that these children are already caught under the provisions on abnormal functioning of mind. The noble Lord, Lord Carlile, has already gone into that. Doctor Eileen Vizard, a consultant—