---

Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I am always extremely tempted by the idea of getting together with the noble Baroness, Lady Stern, and I would certainly be delighted to talk to her about this amendment. But I was feeding her with a thought on which she might like to capitalise later. The issue is about the detail of the Bill. Courts need enough clear water to apply those principles properly and they do not have that. It is not just this Government; previous Governments have been similarly obsessive about refusing to let go of the detail. How can any legislation anticipate a set of circumstances that may confront a judge? That is why the courts need as much discretion as possible. That is true for sentencing generally, but above all it is true for youth sentencing.