AYJ Response: Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill - Committee Stage Briefing
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill, currently at Committee Stage in the House of Commons, introduces a whole host of provisions with a range of impacts across the youth justice system. Our Committee Stage briefing examines the proposals.
While there are some elements of the Bill which the AYJ welcomes, the overall impact of the legislation will be detrimental and will exacerbate existing disparities and injustices. Many of the proposals have been introduced without any consultation and are not grounded in evidence about how to effectively address offending behaviour, risking further undermining trust in the criminal justice system. The government’s own Impact Assessment admits there is “limited evidence that the combined set of measures will deter offenders long term or reduce overall crime”.
The AYJ has worked with Parliamentarians, our members, and wider coalitions of organisations to examine the proposals and produce recommendations to improve the Bill, set out in our Committee Stage briefing published today. We have identified where new provisions should be added to the Bill to address missed opportunities; where provisions stand to reverse recent progress in youth justice and must be removed; and where existing proposals should be amended to maximise their positive potential or address unintended negative consequences.
Read the full briefing here.
Missed opportunities: New clauses to add to the Bill
The White Paper preceding the Bill promised a “smarter approach to sentencing”, but in reality, the Bill perpetuates ineffective sentencing options for children and represents a raft of missed opportunities to reconsider how children in contact with the law can best be supported. The government should introduce provisions to the Bill that:
Raise the age of criminal responsibility
Ensure custody as a last resort and enshrine welfare and rights-based approaches in children’s sentencing legislation
Require courts to record their reasons for sentencing decisions
Ensure all those who allegedly commit offences as children are treated as such
Improve the legal framework around child criminal exploitation
Improve the link between serious violence prevention and housing duties
Unevidenced and unacceptably punitive: Clauses that must be removed from the Bill
The AYJ is particularly concerned about measures in the Bill which will increase the criminalisation and incarceration of children, and exacerbate racial inequalities. These provisions must be removed, including:
Legislation must not be introduced without appropriate consultation and engagement with the evidence base
Stop increasing the length and likelihood of custody for children
Introducing legislation that the government knows will increase racial and ethnic disparity is unacceptable
Stop moving towards treating older children like adults, rather than taking a more nuanced approach to young adults
The expansion of live links in court cannot be permanently embedded without evaluation of impact
Criminalising children for taking part in non-violent protests is against their rights
Room for improvement: Provisions in the Bill that should be amended
There are some provisions in the Bill which are welcome but if amended could be significantly strengthened. Other provisions need careful consideration and amendment to ensure there are no harmful unintended consequences for children. In particular:
Reforms to the threshold for remanding a child to custody are welcome but should go further
Reforms to childhood criminal records are positive but further action remains crucial
If introduced as currently set out, the Serious Violence Duty will have serious unintended consequences for children
The expansion of electronic monitoring of children on Youth Rehabilitation Orders is concerning and the impact on children, breaches, and custody numbers should be kept under review
Provisions for temporary release from Secure Children’s Homes should be amended so remanded children can access temporary release
We await more information on the development of Secure Schools.