Crime and Security Bill

I am grateful to the hon. Member for Hornchurch for tabling his amendments. I hope that he will welcome the fact that, once again, we listened in Committee to the discussions on gang injunctions and introduced amendments accordingly. I am sorry to hear that the hon. Member for Eastleigh is unable to support the Government amendments or the principles behind the new clause. I recognise that there is a need not just to tackle gangs of over-18s, as we did in legislation last year, but to support individuals below the age of 18 who are involved in gangs, as we are trying to do in the Bill. The amendments relate to how we approach under-18 gang injunctions in court. The Government amendments deal with the relationship between youth offending teams and consideration by the courts of those gang injunctions. I remind the House that the under-18 gang injunction is intended to be a pilot. We are looking at two areas for piloting to take place. I hope that will assuage the concerns of the hon. Member for Eastleigh. We will learn lessons about how the gang injunction works in practice. The hon. Member for Hornchurch expressed concerns about gangs and how they operate. I recognise those concerns. We need to consider carefully what steps we need to take to prevent gang membership. Consideration of the new clause and the amendments gives us the chance to examine in detail how gang injunctions will work. We believe that they should prevent serious acts of violence from occurring, break down gang culture, prevent younger gang members from escalating into poor behaviour, and provide opportunities for agencies to engage with gang members to develop effective strategies to help them leave the gang. I draw the attention of the House to Government amendments 17 and 18, which provide for help and support from youth offending teams at an early opportunity, not just to give a view on how gang injunctions should operate and whether individuals are appropriately considered for that, but to give the clarity that the hon. Member for Hornchurch called for in Committee, to ensure proper engagement from youth offending teams to make representations to the court about the most appropriate sentence, how the injunction will operate and, most importantly, what should be done in the event of a breach of such an injunction, which was the subject of considerable discussion during the Committee's consideration. As I said previously, youth offending teams should, at the earliest opportunity in the gang injunction process, ensure that the injunction is tailored to the individual and therefore be more likely to produce the desired outcomes. That is why the Government amendments allow youth offending teams to make representations to the court about a range of matters. Amendment 18 further emphasises the point that detention for breaching an injunction is a last resort. Throughout my work in the Ministry of Justice and in the Home Office, I have been clear that detention should be a last resort. I am disappointed that the hon. Member for Eastleigh does not support the amendments. The gang injunction is meant to be a procedure that takes individuals out of a gang and provides interventions and support to try to break gang behaviour. If the injunction were breached, as might occasionally happen, that would be seen by me and by the Government as a failure of the gang injunction and of the entire process. I accept that we need to look at early intervention and alternative activities, and at the work that we are undertaking on gangs, guns and knives, the round table work, the knife crime action plan and all the other work that we are doing. Ultimately, however, if we are to make an impact on gangs, particularly those with members under 18 years old, the pilot will help us to develop a form of action that could help individuals to leave those gangs and, accordingly, receive the help of youth offending teams before any breach action is taken or any detention is forthcoming. I hope that the hon. Gentleman reflects on those views and changes his mind. The hon. Member for Hornchurch asked whether we had had to date any gang injunctions from the over-18s legislation. The answer is no, we have not. That was the situation during Committee, and it remains the situation now, but it does not get away from the fact that we must take action on under-18s with this gang legislation today. I cannot accept his proposed changes, new clause 4 and amendment 24, so I hope that he will not press them to a vote. They would insert a new clause requiring under-18 gang injunctions to be heard in the youth court rather than the county court, and remove the clause that gives the county court the power to make a supervision order or a detention order when a person aged under 18 breaches their injunction. I accept that the youth court is the specialised criminal court for under-18s. However, it is not, by any means, the only court where under-18s are dealt with. Hon. Members will be aware that youths can appear in the adult magistrate's court, the Crown court and the county court, depending on the type of case. Hon. Members will know also that the county court has special procedures for cases that involve young people, including the requirement that they are assisted by a litigation friend. Therefore, the structure about which the hon. Gentleman was concerned is in place to deal positively with gang injunction hearings, and it will not be a departure from the existing procedure. I strongly believe that the county court is the specialised court for civil injunctions, and, following our examination and roll-out of the over-18 gang violence injunctions, it will become the specialised court for injunctions for under-18s. The project is a pilot; if Royal Assent is given, we will determine the areas in which it operates; we will monitor that pilot; and we will evaluate how it operates in practice. If there are difficulties, we will reflect on them as part of our considerations, but the county courts' experience in hearing—in due course, when they occur—general over-18 injunctions, granting appropriate prohibitions and requirements and sentencing individuals following breach hearings for over-18s means that in most places it will be the appropriate place to hear an under-18 injunction, if it is referred to court. We have sought to involve youth offending teams in the process at the earliest opportunity, and I believe that we can support the injunction's effective use to help manage under-18s and help YOTs manage the objective of leading under-18s away from a gang in the first place.