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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

moved Amendment No. 28: 28: Schedule 1, page 167, line 13, leave out paragraph 36 The noble Baroness said: The purpose of the amendments in this group is to ensure that the breach of a YRO should be dealt with in the youth court when the offender is under 18, or the magistrates’ court if he is over 18. Unless the Crown Court originally imposed the order and the magistrates’ court then considered that the breach warranted revocation of the order and resentencing of the young person, the youth or magistrates’ court should deal with the breach. The current arrangements are that proceedings for breach of community orders made against children and young people commence in the youth court if they are under 18 or the adult magistrates’ court if they are over 18. However, if the order was originally imposed in the Crown Court, the powers of the lower court are limited. Where the breach is such that the youth or magistrates’ court considers that the order should be revoked and the young person resentenced, then of course the case must be referred to the Crown Court. But national standards require that court proceedings are initiated for a third unacceptable failure to attend an appointment within a 12-month period. Frequently, breach action does not imply that the young person is making no effort to comply with the order. For instance, a young person on a standard six-month supervision order might keep more than 90 per cent of his or her appointments and still qualify for breach action. In many cases, the most appropriate course for the court is to allow the order to continue, perhaps with some additional punishment. At present, no cases of this sort would be heard in the Crown Court, even if the original order had been made there. However, the Bill provides that where a youth rehabilitation order is imposed in the Crown Court, subsequent breach proceedings should automatically commence in that court, unless the judge at the sentencing hearing specifically ordered that any further proceedings should be in a youth or other magistrates’ court. This provision would inevitably lead to a substantial rise in the number of young people processed for breach in the Crown Court, including a significant number whose compliance is such that revocation of the order is not required. My concerns about the current proposals are as follows. It would be a disproportionately inefficient use of resources to increase the number of breach cases that are automatically dealt with by the Crown Court. The Bill as drafted would inevitably increase the workload of the Crown Court and lead to delays, when relatively minor breaches could better be dealt with in the youth court. Crown Court proceedings are confusing and intimidating, and unjustified for children when no resentencing is required. Finally, the trial of children in an adult court it is in contravention of Article 30 of CRC, which states that the system for dealing with children should be distinct from that for adults. The UK has been criticised consistently for our provisions and the current proposals still would not comply with our obligations. These amendments would ensure that proceedings for breach of a YRO would always start in the youth or adult magistrates’ court, as they do now for breach of a community sentence. They would not, however, affect the authority of the Crown Court in serious instances of non-compliance, where revocation is appropriate and the young person is to be resentenced. It would be more suitable in every way if all lesser cases were dealt with in the youth or magistrates’ court. I beg to move.