Clause 5
Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill
1:30 pm
David Hanson (Minister of State, Ministry of Justice; Delyn, Labour)
I want to make two points in discussion with the hon. and learned Member for Harborough and the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome. First, the responsible officer’s first duty is to the young person. As the hon. and learned Gentleman has pointed out, under subsection (3)(a), potential conflicts with an offender’s religious beliefs should be discussed as part of the consideration of such matters.
The amendment states “family”. It is possible for a family—however that is defined—to have different religious beliefs within it. It is quite possible for Catholic to marry Protestant, for Jew to marry Catholic and for Muslim to marry Church of England, and it is also possible to have different emphases within that. That might be confusing to the individual. The individual who is before the responsible officer may have strong religious beliefs, and they will be taken into account. We must avoid the potential for confusion.
The hon. and learned Gentleman’s amendment refers to the family, but I do not have a definition of what the family means in that context—