Part of Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – in a Public Bill Committee am 4:30 pm ar 23 Hydref 2007.
It is probably my fault, but I have become a little bit confused about the agreement that the right hon. Member for Cardiff, South and Penarth seemed to be advancing in favour of the Minister’s argument. I thought that I agreed with him that it is far better to have a fairly open-ended system whereby the courts could choose the appropriate remedy for a particular offender without being bothered by the hierarchy, so that if an individual were charged with a fairly low-level offence but none the less needed to have his offending behaviour brought home to him, a reparation order, as suggested by my hon. Friend the Member for Enfield, Southgate, might be sensible. What you call it and how it fits into the Bill does not seem to make much difference; what is important is getting the offender to repair the damage, in some way or other, to the victim. Whether that is done by a rehabilitation order requirement or by a self-standing disposal, or a combination of both, and whether the reparation order fits within both categories, surely does not matter much, as long as the court has it at its disposal.