Coroners and Justice Bill

I am grateful to the noble and learned Lord for reminding me; anything that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Woolf, says on these matters is to be considered seriously. I listened carefully to the phrase that he used. I think he said that he supported what the noble Baroness had said word for word, but that media experience either should be in statute—in the Bill—or should at least be considered when appointments are being made. At the risk of overreaching myself, I can go as far as saying that we agree with the noble and learned Lord inasmuch as it should be considered when appointments are made. However, we part company on the suggestion that it should be in the Bill. I repeat that we believe that many of the non-lawyers who will be making up this organisation will inevitably have considerable media skills in any event. Amendment 80B relates to the experience of non-judicial members in the rehabilitation of offenders. It is an attempt to clarify that the rehabilitation of offenders includes young offenders. We understand the intent, and of course we recognise the importance of dealing with young offenders; that is crucial to the success or otherwise of the council. We were happy, as the noble Baroness was kind enough to mention, to support the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, when he proposed the amendments to add the rehabilitation of offenders to the list in Schedule 14. I do not suppose that when the noble Lord was putting that amendment forward, he thought that "offenders" would not cover young offenders. The other Sentencing Council provisions make no distinction between offending by adult or young offenders, so we do not feel it necessary to amend the Bill. I turn more happily to Amendments 89ZA, 89BA and 89D, which relate to the duty on the council to assess the impact of changes in sentencing on prison, probation and youth justice. Under pressure from the noble Baroness in Committee, I undertook to look at the language of this requirement, following the suggestion that there was some discrepancy—a lesser requirement on the council in relation to impacts on prison than in relation to probation and youth justice. There was no intention to make such a distinction. The noble Baroness has suggested a revised wording in these amendments that we accept captures the essence of what the council is being asked to do: to make an assessment of the impact of sentencing and related issues on prison, probation and youth justice. The Government are therefore happy to support the noble Baroness’s amendments, and we thank her for pressing us on this point.