The Joint Committee on Human Rights calls for a rethink on the PCSC Bill and its impacts on children

The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) has published its report on the sentencing and remand of children as part of its legislative scrutiny of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill.

While the report welcomes proposals in the PCSC Bill which aim to reduce the use of custodial remand for children, it makes clear that provisions that increase the length and likelihood of custody for children risk breaching their rights and must be removed or significantly amended.

The AYJ warmly welcomes this important report from the JCHR, which echoes many of our concerns regarding the Bill’s ramping up of custodial sentences for children, as set out in our Bill briefing. The AYJ submitted written evidence to the JCHR and AYJ Director, Pippa Goodfellow, also gave oral evidence, both of which we are glad to see are referred to in the report.

The report sets out the ways in which the Bill contradicts rights guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), in particular that custody must be a last resort for children and for the shortest possible period of time. It rightly highlights the disproportionate impact sentencing proposals will have on Black and minority ethnic children, questioning compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights, and stating the Committee’s disappointment that the Government has recognised the likely impact on racial disparity, without putting anything in place to mitigate it. We agree with the call from the Committee for better recording of court proceedings to allow for scrutiny and challenging of disproportionate sentencing decisions.

Responding to the report, Pippa said:

The message from this expert committee is loud and clear, and the Government must sit up, listen, and remove these harmful proposals from the Bill. The legislation as it stands will draw more children into the criminal justice system and lock more children up for longer, further entrenching the appalling racial inequalities that already exist throughout the system. As we emerge from the pandemic, these harmful, discriminatory and ineffective measures represent a deeply regressive move. Nation states across the world are taking action to embed and promote children’s rights - it’s high time for the United Kingdom to join the charge.

Instead of pursuing these punitive, unevidenced and harmful reforms, the Government should instead, as recommended by the Committee, be looking to further enhance and embed children’s rights by incorporating the UNCRC into domestic legislation. As mentioned in the report, Pippa set out the benefits of incorporation in her oral evidence:

It would send a really positive message to children, and it would give all those who are working in the best interests of children additional tools and mechanisms by which they could make sure that their rights were upheld.

Overall, the AYJ warmly welcomes the recommendations set out by the JCHR and we urge the Government to consider this crucial report in the next stages of the PCSC Bill. We agree with the Committee that reforms to remand are welcome, and have set out how these proposals can be strengthened further to ensure custodial remand really is a last resort for children.

The AYJ extends our gratitude to the JCHR for hearing our evidence and using it to support this report. For further scrutiny of the PCSC Bill and its impacts on children in or at risk of involvement in the youth justice system, please refer to the AYJ briefing found here, which covers additional issues such as video links in court hearings, the Serious Violence Duty, Childhood Criminal Records, implications of turning 18, and more. We have also set out more detail on reducing the number of children in custody in our Ensuring custody is the last resort report.