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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, Amendment No. 115AC highlights the need to take into account factors particularly associated with young offenders. The noble Baroness, Lady Falkner, is right that we had a very useful meeting in which we discussed this and went through some of the details because we all recognise the concerns of the noble Baroness and that this is an important area we need to resolve. However, we do not believe that establishing a statutory role for local safeguarding children boards within the process of disclosure is necessary or appropriate. Local safeguarding children boards have primarily a co-ordinating function in relation to the bodies or persons represented rather than a responsibility for the operational management of particular cases. We believe that involving them might, on occasion, slow things down and make them not as efficient as they should be. A MAPPA responsible authority—this answers some of the noble Baroness’s worries—must act in co-operation with various organisations, including social services, the local education authority and youth offending teams, under Section 325 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. The chief officer of police, the local probation board and youth offending teams are also all on the local safeguarding children board and in discharging their functions they must make arrangements to ensure that they have regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. All those bodies are pulled in and utilised when decisions are being made. Any young person who becomes the subject of a disclosure would have been referred to MAPPA by the youth offending team, which would be responsible for the management of the case and would be involved in the decision and the ongoing risk management plan for that youngster who, we recognise, could have particular difficulties and problems. We acknowledge the importance of involving those bodies in any decision to disclose information about a young offender. Accordingly, we have revised the statutory guidance for MAPPA responsible authorities, which will be published in June. It has been developed in consultation with the NSPCC and Barnardo’s, among other bodies with an interest in children, and they are content with moving ahead on this basis. The guidance will state that when decisions about disclosure are being made about an offender under 18, representatives from children’s services and youth offending services must be at that MAPPA meeting. If they are not present, the disclosure decision should not be made. I hope that reassures the noble Baroness. However, we cannot accept the amendment. The decision to disclose information under this duty must be a considered decision involving all the relevant agencies. This clause will help to ensure that that is the case. By introducing into the process of disclosure another multi-agency body which meets only quarterly, Amendment No. 115AC risks delaying and unnecessarily complicating a process that is intended to protect children from a risk of serious harm. We believe that the existing process and the revisions we will make to the new guidance are the most effective way of ensuring that the needs of young offenders are balanced against the need to protect the children who they may put at risk. I hope the noble Baroness is persuaded of that and is reassured that her concerns have been considered to the extent that she feels able to withdraw her amendment.