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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, I have seldom been happier to see my noble friend Lord Judd—and he certainly is a friend, even if he is on a different Bench—appear suddenly on the Labour Benches. We have been missing him all day and he has arrived for just the right clause. I very much support this clause. As my noble friend Lord Ramsbotham said, our debates on the Children and Young Persons Act went through it, too. We are dealing with the most vulnerable group of people that you can think of. They have almost certainly suffered from the many problems that we have heard read out during these debates. Having a supportive worker in touch with them could make all the difference to whether they reoffend. I stress one thing—emphasis is laid on the particular worker chosen having the necessary skills, and I do think that that is frightfully important. But as well as that, there should be some degree of choice for the young person concerned. I hope that that will be borne in mind. Above all, they need a mentor who will take them through the more difficult periods of coming out of some form of custody and back into the real world—giving them advice on education, skills training and other things. I very much support this amendment.