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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

moved Amendment No. 1: 1: After Clause 11, insert the following new Clause— ““Pre-sentence reports In section 158 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (c. 44) (meaning of ““pre-sentence report””), after subsection (1) insert— ““(1A) Subject to any rules made under subsection (1)(b) and to subsection (1B), the court may accept a pre-sentence report given orally in open court. (1B) But a pre-sentence report that— (a) relates to an offender aged under 18, and (b) is required to be obtained and considered before the court forms an opinion mentioned in section 156(3)(a), must be in writing.”””” The noble Lord said: My Lords, we have tabled Amendment No. 1 in response to concerns raised in debate in Committee on pre-sentence reports for young offenders aged under 18. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 makes provision for oral reports to be made to a court. That enables cases for relatively minor offences to proceed where the offender is already known to the court representative and where, in most cases, a pre-sentence report will have been prepared on a previous recent occasion. It is right that a young person should be dealt with promptly when charged with a criminal offence if the case is proven. It is known that speedy intervention has the greatest effect on preventing reoffending. That is why we have focused on reducing the time for persistent young offenders to be brought before a court. The majority of pre-sentence reports, 80 per cent, will be full written reports, 11 per cent will be oral reports given to the court and the remaining 9 per cent are described as specific sentence reports—shortened, written pre-sentence reports. Where the offence is fairly low level and the court has a recent full report before it, or where the offence is very minor, we believe it is in the young person’s best interests that the case is proceeded with promptly. By way of example, where the young person has committed an offence of shoplifting of a low value item or minor criminal damage with no aggravating circumstances—for instance, there is no associated drug abuse problem—and the court is content that a full report is not required, we believe that an oral report may be appropriate. Similarly, an oral report on the current offence may be provided where the young person is a repeat offender and a written pre-sentence report was prepared for the previous offence and remains valid. In those cases, we think it would be unreasonable to adjourn the case and remand or bail the young person until a new report is completed. However, I acknowledge the concerns that were raised earlier about the need to ensure that where custody is being considered the court has the full background information before it in a written pre-sentence report. In Committee, the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, expressed concern, as did other noble Lords, about the possibility of a young person being sentenced to custody without the court having a written report before it. The noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, has expressed similar concerns. I can confirm that this possibility is not excluded, either in existing legislation, or the national standards for youth justice services. I acknowledge the concerns of noble Lords. Amendment No. 1 will ensure that the court has a written pre-sentence report when considering sentencing a young offender to custody. I will also deal with Amendment No. 2, which will be moved in due course by the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland. We are very grateful to the noble Lord for giving us the opportunity to discuss his amendment and our amendment with him this morning and earlier this afternoon. I think we understand his concern correctly: it is that Amendment No. 1 would mean that the court would have to decide that custody was appropriate before requesting a written pre-sentence report. He rightly pointed out that, in many cases, the court would not be able to come to such a view until it had seen the pre-sentence report. We have considered the matter further since the noble Lord’s observations of earlier today. We can reassure the noble Lord that this is not the effect of Amendment No. 1. Section 156(3) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 requires that a court must, in respect of a person under the age of 18, obtain a pre-sentence report before reaching an opinion. Under Section 152(2) of that Act, the offence, or combination of the offence and one or more offences associated with it, must be so serious that neither a fine alone, nor a community sentence, can be justified. In other words, the court must obtain a pre-sentence report before reaching a decision that the custody threshold has been met. In practice, this means that where the defendant pleads not guilty, but is convicted after a trial, the court will have to adjourn, and a pre-sentence report be prepared, in a case where custody is a possibility. I repeat those words: where custody is a possibility. The effect of Amendment No. 1 is that a written pre-sentence report will have to be prepared in those circumstances. The court will then be in a position to come to a view as to whether the offender has reached the custody threshold. The amendment will mean that the court cannot come to such a view without a written pre-sentence report. It also means that, as at present, written pre-sentence reports will be prepared in many instances where the court decides, in light of that report, that custody is not appropriate. I hope that answers noble Lords’ concerns, particularly those of the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland. There is no difference between us or around the House. A young person should not be sent to custody without a full written pre-sentence report being obtained. In due course I am likely to invite the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment; for the moment, I beg to move Amendment No.1.