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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

In this debate I am reminded of the startling figures of the numbers of children in custody with learning disability and learning difficulty. As the noble Lord, Lord Judd, has suggested, will the Minister look at this to see whether enough is being done? Clearly, from the statistics on the number of children with learning disability and learning difficulty, one has to be concerned that not enough account has been taken of the level of maturity of children entering custody. We have discussed ““without reasonable excuse”” at some length. I ask the Minister to give more detail about what the guidance is to courts on what is and is not a reasonable excuse. That would be helpful in considering this matter.