Member

How can somebody be sentenced—how can a judge or magistrate make a decision as to a disposal—if the court does not have in front of it the evidence required to give a proper disposal. I know of one case in which one child was released without a caution by the police to their loving parents, who were telling him off in the police station while he was being interviewed for whatever he had done, and the other child, who was with him on the expedition that had led to their arrest, was kept in custody because he was a looked-after child. That sort of discrimination occurs in the system too, and it is just not acceptable. I am afraid that it is the Government’s responsibility to provide the proper care and results for these children to allow them to become responsible adults. The Government have to make the rules. It is not good enough to leave it to individual schools, police forces and police stations to make the provisions and the adaptations necessary to deal with this cohort.