Clause 12 - Conditional cautions: types of condition
Police and Justice Bill
9:45 am
Nick Herbert (Shadow Minister (Police Reform), Home Affairs; Arundel and South Downs, Conservative)
That is precisely my point. Justice will not be served if an offender can get away with a lower level of fine by way of a fixed penalty when that is not merited. Magistrates are no longer to make those decisions—they will not be able to exercise their judgment on the proper level of fine for such offenders because they are not to be involved in the process. The decisions are to be taken only by the police with prosecutors.
The Minister said that the measure will free up magistrates’ time. One might, therefore, have expected the Magistrates Association to be terribly grateful for a measure to deal with the bureaucracy that confronts them, but they have not said that. Instead, they have expressed great concern about the fact that they are to be removed from the process altogether. That is a fundamental shift in the basis on which justice has been exercised in this country.
I am grateful for the Minister’s clarification that the press report that I mentioned referred not to the introduction of punitive conditions in relation to cautions, but to potential future changes through which there may be a further extension of summary justice. We look forward to hearing those proposals. The Minister said that she expected us to welcome them, but we cannot know that until we have sight of them.
It confirms—and we know this from the Prime Minister’s statements during news conferences and in the House—that a large change is under way which involves the appropriate level of punishment being decided, not by magistrates who are trained and qualified to make such decisions, but by prosecutors and the police. The only safeguard lies in the fact that the measure is voluntary—the offender can choose not to accept the fixed penalty and can opt to go to court. However, we must be concerned about those offenders who are less able to afford the possible fine or who find themselves coerced. By coerced, I mean that there is a serious danger that the police might overuse the measure to dispense summary justice and to deal with people they find troublesome, meaning that cases never reach court or, indeed, public attention.
It may be true that this measure will make it easier to deal with antisocial behaviour, and we should take it seriously. However, it will also change the balance of how we dispense justice in this country, so it merits a serious debate. It is not sufficient argument to say that because antisocial behaviour is a problem, the change must be merited and anybody who cares about antisocial behaviour must be in favour of it.