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Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

I thank all noble Lords who have taken part in this debate. I particularly thank the noble and learned Lord, Lord Woolf. He emphasised an important point which I forgot to emphasise, which is the importance of victims and how restorative justice can be of benefit to them. I also thank my noble friend Lord Judd. His central point was the importance of bringing restorative justice into the mainstream of sentencing—a point on which all noble Lords who spoke tonight agreed. The noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, gave some statistics about victim participation rates. I found them surprisingly high—much higher than my own experience of restorative justice in youth courts, where our main problem is getting victims to agree to participate. That is a substantial problem that I have come across, but if the noble Lord has other experiences, I am encouraged to hear that. The noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, gave his cautionary tale. I am afraid that I can give cautionary tales as well. Nevertheless, restorative justice is a good thing to aim towards and to try to implement. I was amused that the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, predicted extremely accurately what the Minister’s response was going to be to this group of amendments. Having said all that, I am encouraged by the noble Baroness’s response and I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 177DA withdrawn. Amendment 177DAA Tabled by