MPs say sentencing bill may breach children’s human rights

A parliamentary committee has called on the government to reverse proposals that would see longer prison sentences for certain crimes committed by children.

While welcoming measures that would see fewer children placed in custody whilst awaiting trial, the joint committee on human rights has warned that proposed measures to increase the use of mandatory sentences for children and which will extend the time children who commit serious offences spend behind bars could contravene human rights law.

The findings come in a report published today by the committee following legislative scrutiny of the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill.

The committee says the bill must be amended to reflect rights guaranteed in the UN convention on the rights of the child.

Proposed limits to the ability of judges to deviate from mandatory minimum sentences for 16 and 17 year olds should be withdrawn. Starting points for setting tariffs for Detention during Her Majesty’s Pleasure, where a child offender is sentenced to remain in prison until it is safe for them to be released, should not be increased beyond the existing 12-year limit.

The committee finds that proposals to extend whole life orders to offenders aged between 18 and 20 would effectively remove the possibility that reform and rehabilitation could offer a chance of freedom, which it perceived as close to a contravention of article 3 of the European convention on human Rights.

The committee’s chair, Harriet Harman MP said: “Prison should remain the measure of last resort for children and young people and for the shortest appropriate time. Child offenders are still children It is deeply concerning that some of the provisions in this Bill would have a disproportionate impact on Black and minority ethnic children, as the Government admits, and yet has no plans to mitigate this”