My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, for proposing the amendment in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, who is unable to be with us this evening. She spoke eloquently at Second Reading about the benefits of restorative justice, and I am very sorry that she is not in her place this evening. I am sure that I speak for the whole Committee in wishing her well. She did, however, have a meeting with me on this topic, and I record my thanks to her for her time and for the discussion. She expressed concern that the Bill did not include provision for restorative justice. The amendment is trying to fill that perceived gap by requiring the Home Secretary and the Justice Secretary to publish an action plan for restorative justice every three years.
I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Harris of Richmond, for her support for restorative justice. I agree that, in the right circumstances, it can have far-reaching benefits. I have heard and felt the mood of the Committee on this point, but the truth is that I did not really need any persuading as to the importance of restorative justice. It can bring those harmed by a crime and those responsible for that harm into communication, and it can help everyone affected by the crime to play a part in repairing the harm; that is commendable. The Government support restorative justice where it can be suitably used.
However, with respect to the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, I would draw a distinction between civil cases and criminal cases. We have to remember that in a civil dispute—this is part of the answer to the road traffic point, but I will write to my noble friend as well—there are two parties before the court. I can settle my case on whatever terms I want if the other person agrees. When it comes to crime, there is a public interest; we prosecute in the name of the public. We do not allow victims to determine always whether the offender serves a punishment or not. I am not saying that restorative justice is not applicable, but we have to remember that there is a different set of criteria and principled underpinnings to our civil justice system and our criminal justice system.
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The way we fund restorative justice is that my department provides funding to police and crime commissioners and the grant agreement in place requires the PCCs to provide or commission a wide range of local support services for victims, including restorative justice services. It requires PCCs to report to my department every six months on the delivery of the funding, which we monitor closely. As elected officials, the PCCs are accountable to voters. In the 2020-21 year, they spent £3.7 million from the funding we provided on restorative justice services.
I found the speech by my noble friend Lord Brookeborough extremely interesting, because it showed how restorative justice could be used in very unusual circumstances and shows its potential wide
application. It certainly is not a soft option; the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, made that clear as well with his experience from London. Whether it should be the foundation of our justice system or not may be an interesting point, but it is certainly not an afterthought or something we just add on at the end; it is an important part of it.
There is, however, no agreed definition of restorative justice. It is not just communication between victim and perpetrator. We consider that it extends to other parts of the Bill in the way that we have a new system for out-of-court disposals, because the conditions attached to those disposals again provide an opportunity for intervention and support to offenders, and appropriate input from the victim of crime. The new code of practice for victims of crime, which came into force on 1 April this year, provides victims with the opportunity to receive information about how restorative justice works and what options are available to them.
With that all said, the Government do not consider that making us publish action plans is going to take this any further. The evidence base exists, services are available, and victims need to be made more aware of their availability. A statutory framework for an action plan will simply create an unnecessary bureaucratic burden. There is work already under way to improve the current position of restorative justice.
Finally, given the nature of what we are talking about, there are not hard statistics because it is so flexible. Indeed, that is a positive benefit of restorative justice. For those reasons, I invite the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, on behalf of the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, to withdraw the amendment.