HC Deb 15 July 1948 vol 453 cc1574-7

Lords Amendment: In page 21, line 23, after "shall" insert "(except as provided by paragraph (c) of this proviso)."

Mr. Ede

I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

This Amendment and the two to lines 25 and 33, have been made in response to representations by the Metropolitan juvenile court magistrates who feel that the term of three months which is the minimum for which a person may be sent to a detention centre is too long in the case of young offenders, particularly in the case of young offenders at school. The effect of these Amendments is to allow the court in the case of offenders of compulsory school age to send them to detention for one month, or any term between one and three months.

Lords Amendment: In page 22, insert new Clause "B"—(Attendance at an attendance centre.) .—(1) Where a court of summary jurisdiction has power, or would but for section seventeen of this Act have power, to impose imprisonment on a person who is not less than twelve but under twenty-one years of age, or to deal with any such person under section seven of this Act for failure to comply with any of the requirements of a probation order, the court may, if it has been notified by the Secretary of State that an attendance centre is available for the reception from that court of persons of his class or description, order him to attend at such a centre, to be specified in the order, for such number of hours, not exceeding twelve in the aggregate, as may be so specified: Provided that no such order shall be made in the case of a person who has been previously sentenced to imprisonment, Borstal training or detention in a detention centre, or has been ordered to be sent to an approved school. (2) The times at which an offender is required to attend at an attendance centre by virtue of an order made under this section shall be such as to avoid interference, so far as practicable, with his school hours or working hours, and the first such time shall be specified in the order (being a time at which the centre is available for the attendance of the offender in accordance with the notification of the Secretary of State) and the subsequent times shall be fixed by the officer in charge of the centre, having regard to the offender's circumstances: Provided that an offender shall not be required under this section to attend at an attendance centre on more than one occasion on any day, or for more than three hours on any occasion. (3) The court by which an order has been made under subsection (1) of this section, or any justice acting for the petty sessional division or place for which that court acts, may, on the application of the offender or of the officer in charge of the attendance centre specified in the order—

  1. (a) by order discharge the order; or
  2. (b) by order vary the day or hour specified therein for the offender's first attendance at the centre;
and where the application is made by the said officer, the court or justice may deal with it without summoning the offender. (4) Where an order is made under subsection (1) or subsection (3) of this section, the clerk to the justices shall deliver or send a copy of the order to the officer in charge of the attendance centre specified therein, and shall also deliver a copy to the offender or send a copy by registered post addressed to the offender's last or usual place of abode. (5) Where a person has been ordered to attend at an attendance centre in default of the payment of any sum of money then—
  1. (a) on payment of the whole sum to any person authoriised to receive it, the order shall cease to have effect;
  2. (b) on the payment of a part of the said sum as aforesaid, the total number of hours for which the offender is required to attend at the centre shall be reduced proportionately that is to say by such number of complete hours as bears to the said total number the proportion most nearly approximating to, without exceeding, the proportion which the part paid bears to the said sum.
 (6) Provision may be made by rules under section twenty-nine of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, as to the application of sums paid under the last foregoing subsection and for determining the persons authorised to receive such payments and the conditions under which such payments may be made. (7) Where an order under subsection (1) of this section has been made and it appears on information to a justice acting for the petty sessional division or place for which the court which made the order acts that the person in whose case the order was made—
  1. (a) has failed without reasonable excuse to attend at the centre in accordance with the order; or
  2. (b) while attending at the centre has committed a breach of the rules made under section fifty of this Act which cannot be adequately dealt with under those rules;
the justice may issue a summons requiring the offender to appear at the place and time specified therein before a court of summary jurisdiction for the petty sessional division or place for which the justice acts, or may, if the information is in writing and on oath, issue a warrant for his arrest requiring him to be brought before such a court. (8) If it is proved to the satisfaction of the court before which an offender appears or is brought under the last foregoing subsection that he has failed to attend as aforesaid, or has committed such a breach of rules as aforesaid, that court may revoke the order requiring his attendance at the attendance centre and deal with him in any manner in which he could have been dealt with by the court which made the order if the order had not been made.

Mr. Younger

I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

This Clause is to make provision on the lines of a proposal which was included in the 1938 Bill, but not included in this Bill, for requiring young offenders to attend compulsory attendance centres. The main difference between the 1938 proposal and the present one is that the maximum number of hours for which an offender can be ordered to attend is in this provision 12 instead of 60, which was the very much heavier provision in the old Bill.

Under this Clause a court can send an offender for four periods of three hours each to attendance centres. The Clause also excludes from the category of offenders who may be sent to an attendance centre those who have been previously sentenced to imprisonment, Borstal training or detention in a detention centre or those ordered to be sent to approved schools. The purpose is to limit the possibilities of offenders contaminating each other which is, unfortunately, one of the results which the Government feared might ensure from this provision. There is a further change in the sense that failure to attend or a breach of the rules of attendance will mean, under Subsection (8) that the court will deal with the offender in any manner in which he could have been dealt with by the court if it had not made the original order.

When this Clause was accepted by the Government in another place it was made clear that if it were included in this Bill it could be only on the basis of experiment. There will undoubtedly be great difficulties in bringing this into operation on any considerable scale, but Lord Templewood, who was originally responsible for the proposal in 1938, suggested—and the Government thought it very reasonable—that it would be very useful to take power to make experiments. But there may be areas where we cannot find suitable premises and areas where we cannot find suitable staffs. Staffing is an important matter because if an attendance centre containing two or three people of this type were not properly supervised there would be a serious risk of contamination. But on the basis that this would be an experiment of a limited character the Government commend it to the House.