§ Sir G. Willsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he proposes to bring into operation the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act, 1961, relating to the treatment of young offenders.
§ Mr. Gardnerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what arrangements he is making to give effect to the recommendations in Part B of the Streatfeild Report about the preparation of reports on accused persons.
§ Mr. BrookeI have decided to make an order bringing into operation on 1st August Sections 1 to 7 inclusive, Section 25, and certain consequential provisions of the Criminal Justice Act, 1961. The main reforms made by the introduction 87W of these provisions will be the abolition of sentences of imprisonment for offenders under the age of seventeen, coupled with the lowering of the minimum age of eligibility for a sentence of borstal training to fifteen: the substantial elimination, save in the case of serious or repeated offences, of sentences of medium-term imprisonment for offenders aged seventeen and under twenty-one, and their replacement by sentences of borstal training: and the provision of regular reports to Parliament on approved schools, remand homes and attendance centres. The implementation of these provisions also represents a further step towards the eventual abolition of short sentences of imprisonment for offenders under twenty-one.
It is clearly desirable that the administrative arrangements to give effect to the recommendations in Part B of the Streatfeild Report, about the preparation of reports to assist the courts in passing sentence, should take full account of the provisions of the 1961 Act and should come into operation on the same date. The arrangements to give effect to this part of the Streatfeild Committee's recommendations will therefore be brought into operation on 1st August, instead of the date previously announced.