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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

The noble Lord has a remarkable memory, as I am discovering. His contributions are always apt. But I think that the answer must be no, because we consider that the current legislative provisions already meet the case in point. As I said earlier, there is a genuine problem about simply enunciating principles in the Bill, however attractive, because of the implications they could have for other legislation. A number of noble Lords, including the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, raised the question—I am sure we will return to it later—of what the noble Lord described as the ““disconnect”” between criminal justice legislation and legislation relating to children and young people that often refers to the responsibility of local authorities. I fully understand the issue. There is no question but that the child’s welfare should be the court’s paramount consideration. Nor can there be any doubt that certain bodies should have regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. That is provided for, for instance, in the Children Act 2004. However, the Children Acts were not intended to apply to a criminal court when sentencing a young offender, because we believe that the court also has other considerations such as the protection of the public. That is why we believe that the prevention of offending has to remain the principal aim of the court when sentencing a young person. However, courts do and should continue to have regard to the welfare of a young person, which is where the 1933 Act is so important. When a court is sentencing a young offender, it never has, and in our view it should not give, the welfare of the child priority over the prevention of offending.