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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I am delighted to support the noble Earl in his amendment. I thought that he moved it in a characteristically reflective style, which is always very enjoyable to hear. He referred in passing to left-wing advocates. I served on the committee with the noble Earl for some time and often felt that he was essentially, in the best sense, a left-wing advocate of decency, humanity and common sense. However, that is not why I rise to support the amendment, although I am glad to do so in that spirit. He referred to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, but when the human rights commissioner from the Council of Europe visited this country, he had an informal meeting with the members of the committee and was really perturbed by what he detected—I think it may be fair to say that he thought it was inadvertent—as the increasing criminalisation of young people in our society. That conversation with the commissioner made a deep impression on me, and that is one reason why I think the amendment should be taken seriously. The second reason is that, with the help of the Home Office—I always believe in looking at things as they are—I visited one of the teams working on the front line in this sphere. I do not think that I am doing them a disfavour if I say that I was terribly impressed by their unhappiness about the way the system was operating; they were quite perturbed about it. I think that it is something that needs to be addressed and, for those reasons, I hope that my noble friend, who is a reasonable man, will respond to the amendment reasonably and sensitively.