Summary
3.The Act is in four parts.
Part I: creates two new services: the National Probation Service for England and Wales and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service;
Part II: sets up an integrated statutory system to prevent unsuitable people from working with children, with a statutory ban enforced by criminal sanctions. Part II also increases the maximum penalties for offences relating to indecent photographs of children and raises the age of the child protected by section 1(1) of the Indecency with Children Act 1960 from under 14 to under 16.
Part III: deals with community orders including the renaming of probation orders, community service orders and combination orders, the greater use of electronic monitoring and stricter enforcement and ensures that sex offenders subject to the notification requirements of Part I of the Sex Offenders Act 1997 should not be eligible for the Home Detention Curfew scheme. Part III introduces new powers for the compulsory drug testing of offenders and alleged offenders at various points in their contact with the criminal justice system and allows a court considering the question of bail to take into account any drug misuse by the defendant. It provides the Crown Court with new powers to issue a summons or warrant in respect of an offender who fails to appear at the Crown Court to answer a summons issued by a justice in respect of an alleged breach of a community order. It also provides for reprimands and final warnings, under the Final Warning Scheme, to be given away from the police station. It introduces changes to the way in which tariffs are set for those under age 18 and abolishes the sentences of detention in a Young Offender Institution and custody for life for those over age 18. Part III also makes amendments to the Sex Offenders Act 1997, and makes provision in relation to the management of violent and sexual offenders;
Part IV: introduces a new power to allow the police access to Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) driver records and increases the penalty for parents who fail to ensure that their children attend school regularly. Part IV extends the range of persons able to serve as a responsible officer under a parenting order. It also contains supplementary and consequential provisions.
