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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I shall say much the same thing in rather different words. There can be a good case in principle for having a mandatory minimum period of incarceration, because some things in imprisonment can be achieved only in a stated minimum of time. However, to bind the hands of sentencers for non-custodial sentences so that they must apply controls to a child for a stated minimum of time is to prejudge entirely the state of mind of the child and the circumstances of the offence. That is entirely wrong, so that leg of the amendment must be right. The second leg of the amendment is a separate matter, which could have been provided for in a separate amendment, but I entirely agree with the first leg of it.