Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, I have some amendments in this group—namely, Amendment 11 and Clause 31 stand part—so perhaps it might be appropriate if I spoke to them. In fact, they follow on from what my noble friend Lord Onslow has just said. My amendments are purely probing, to explore the new offence. We on these Benches are concerned that it will do more harm than good. It covers some very young people, as my noble friend has said, who must not be put in harm’s way. If the Government are serious about reducing youth crime, they must protect the young people. The noble Baroness, Lady Stern, asked whether it is appropriate to allow a 10 year-old to leave with a group that represents a risk of disorder, with no steps taken to protect the child. Can we have a bit of joined-up thinking here? There is plenty of child protection legislation on the statute book, but it seems that this clause does not pay any regard to it. The noble Baroness’s amendment also raises some pertinent concerns. There is a disconnect between the international definition of a child, to which we have signed up, and the different age specified in UK law, which causes many inconsistencies and much confusion when establishing offences and powers relating to this age group. I also have great sympathy with concern expressed for young adults who fall into the grey area between 16 and 18. The law appears to have conflicting expectations of them in terms of behaviour and penalties. However, I am not quite sure that the noble Baroness’s amendment is the best way forward. I entirely agree with her concern about the trend of treating young people with suspicion when they are doing nothing wrong. There is certainly an unfair and slightly hysterical perception on the part of some that any teenager not actively engaged in meaningful activity in public is automatically looking for trouble—I just do not believe that that is true. That said, there is no doubt that some communities suffer from a real problem of genuinely anti-social and threatening behaviour, often committed by young people under the age of 18 and sometimes by young people under 16. The police need the appropriate tools to be able to deal with this behaviour. I agree with the noble Baroness that the direction to move individuals on could be misused. My later amendment to the clause suggests an alternative solution that would offer a more appropriate way of dealing with misbehaving groups of young people, because there is not a shadow of doubt that there are some, perhaps very few, young people who misbehave and we have to get at them somehow.