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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

The noble Lord said that the Government are providing an effective framework for dealing with this problem. Listening to the Minister, I have the impression that there is no framework at all. Who can set up these facilities? It would appear that any ex-alcoholic or even current alcoholic can do so. How is the court to know what places are available? Will the youth offending team go around trying to find a place with someone offering these services and include it in the pre-sentence report? How is it to be funded? We are not sure. It certainly is not a part of the youth offending team’s budget apparently and will come from somewhere else. The Minister is suggesting a ramshackle structure for the carrying out of these orders, not the tightly controlled suggestion made by my noble friend. Furthermore, it is a little excessive if the criticism is that my noble friend is calling for a centralised list. As I understand the amendment, he is calling for the Secretary of State to make sure that there is a list, but it will not have to be centralised in London and made available nationally. It can be devolved via the Secretary of State to the local area so that it is available to the magistrates’ court faced with a sentencing problem. I would have thought the Government would have tried to get this into a better framework than that which has been suggested so far.