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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

moved Amendment No. 14: 14: Schedule 1, page 128, line 6, at end insert— ““Emotional and intellectual maturity 28A Before making a youth rehabilitation order, the court must obtain and consider information about the offender’s age and emotional and intellectual maturity.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, this amendment considers the issue of emotional and intellectual maturity. The Minister will recall that we moved similar amendments in Committee. The amendment reflects the concern that further safeguards are needed in the YRO framework to ensure proportionality and prevent overloading of sentences. We fear that a court’s decision to address relevant welfare issues alongside reoffending ones in sentence conditions could even be the straw that breaks the back of the child or young person in terms of his capacity to comply. While we recognise the Government’s good intentions, we want a little more reassurance about the proportionality of YROs to the emotional and intellectual capacity of the young offender. This is another attempt to take the legislation further down the road of applicability to young people, recognising that we are essentially still operating in a criminal justice system that has been designed for adults and adapted to young people. That is why we have retabled this amendment and those grouped with it. I beg to move.