Schedule 14
Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill
12:45 pm
Vernon Coaker (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Gedling, Labour)
To reassure the hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate, our intention is that the measure should be very much a last resort, not something that is used as a matter of course. We felt, however, that it was important to include in the schedule a sanction that could be used should someone completely fail to comply with the rehabilitation order. That is the point of including the provision.
Failure to attend without a reasonable excuse will constitute a breach, so the Bill states that if the person who is subject to the rehabilitation order can demonstrate that it was reasonable for them to have missed the meeting, the supervisor will have to take that into account. When the individual fails to comply with the order, the supervisor will be required to inform the court—either the court where the order was made, or the court in the area to which the person who is subject to the order has moved.
The magistrates court will not then have to issue a summons, but it will be able to do so if it chooses. The supervisor will be required to report to the court any failure to meet the requirements of the order, alongside an assessment of the individual’s likely future compliance, and the court will then instigate breach proceedings. We do not wish the 72 hours provision to be used often, but at the end of the day it is important to make available a sanction should somebody knowingly, deliberately and wilfully choose to ignore the fact that they are subject to an order. I do not believe that it will be used in many circumstances; I think it will be used in very few.