My Lords, in this group of amendments we are dealing with offences triable either way and determining the mode of trial. I will go through all the amendments one by one and then make some rounding-up comments at the end.
In Amendment 31, the provisions in Clause 6 would apply only to persons charged with an offence who had received the advice of a legal representative prior to submitting a plea. In Amendment 32, the provisions in Clause 6 would apply only if the court had been provided with a physical and mental health of the accused, confirming that the written procedure would not impede the ability of the accused to understand or effectively participate in proceedings.
Amendment 33 would ensure that an accused person was informed about not only the consequences of giving or failing to give a written indication of a plea but the potential legal and practical consequences of pleading guilty. Amendment 34 would remove cases involving children and young people from the provisions of Clause 9. In Amendment 35, Clauses 6 to 9 would expire two years from when the Bill was passed, unless Parliament passed a resolution to retain those clauses.
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Amendment 36 is in the name of my noble friend Lady Chakrabarti, and I will leave her to speak to it. Amendment 36A would ensure that the new increased magistrates’ sentencing powers were subject to regular reporting on their impact, including with respect to those with protected characteristics, every four months.
Clause 8 stand part would delete Clause 8, removing from the Bill the written procedure for children for indicating a plea and determining the mode of trial. Clause 14 stand part would delete Clause 14. That would be consequential to opposing the question that Clause 8 stand part of the Bill and would remove from the Bill the involvement of a parent or guardian from the proceedings conducted in writing. These are all probing amendments.
What I shall say in the round is that allocation decisions are often quite technical. It is often the case that defendants do not particularly follow the niceties of the argument when one is making allocation procedures. That is true with both adults and youths. Nevertheless, it is certainly my experience that a contested allocation procedure really focuses the mind of the court and of the defendant on the severity of the matter that you are dealing with. So, while one could argue that it is a procedural matter that does not require someone to be present in person in certain cases, that is true sometimes, but in my experience there are some closely contested allocation procedures where the full engagement of the defendant is vital in order to make a decision appropriately.
Particularly when it comes to people with mental health problems or vulnerabilities and the like, I have certainly been in court when, if I may use the expression, “the light goes on” and they understand the seriousness of the position that they are in, and it is because of the allocation procedure. So we ought to be very careful about doing a lot of these procedures administratively or online, without the defendants present or without them being fully involved in the process. If you do
that, you lose an opportunity to fully engage the defendant in the process that is happening in court. My experience, in both adult and youth courts, is that one of the greatest problems is making sure that defendants fully engage in the process. In my experience, allocation decisions are an example of where people sometimes fully engage and, as I said, the light goes on and they understand the seriousness of their position. I beg to move.