1 May 2012
440.A detention and training order (DTO) is a custodial sentence for young offenders aged between 12 and 17 created by sections 100 to 107 PCC(S)A 2000. In broad terms, the offender spends the first half of the specified period in custody (detention and training) and the second half in the community subject to various requirements and under the supervision of the youth offending team.
441.Subsections (2) to (7) amend section 104 of the PCC(S)A 2000 to extend the powers of the court to punish an offender who has breached their DTO by failing to comply with the supervision requirements imposed on them
442.Subsection (2) retains the power of the court to impose a period of detention in punishment for the breach. It also creates a new power for the court to impose an additional period of supervision.
443.Subsection (3) inserts new subsections (3A) to (3D), which make further provision about the periods of supervision or detention, into section 104:
new subsection (3A) sets the maximum period for which the court may impose supervision or detention as a punishment for breach. This is to be the shorter of 3 months or the period beginning with the date of the failure to comply with the requirement and the last day of the term of the DTO.
new subsection (3B) stipulates how that period is to be determined if the failure to comply with a requirement took place over two or more days.
new subsection (3C) is especially important as it provides that the court may impose a period of supervision or detention for breach even after the term of the DTO has finished. This means that those subject to a DTO will not be able to avoid being given a further period of detention or supervision by delaying their breach hearings until after the term of their DTO expires as has happened following the case of H v Doncaster Youth Court, Doncaster Youth Offending Service(16) where the court had held that a further period of detention could only be imposed from the date on which the court made a finding that the offender had failed to comply with supervision requirements, rather than from the actual failure to comply, and only up to the end of the original DTO period.
new subsection (3D) provides that where the court imposes a period of detention or supervision for breach, it takes immediate effect and can overlap with a period of supervision under the DTO.
444.Subsection (4) inserts new section 104(4A) into the PCC(S)A 2000. This provides that where an offender is over 18 when a court orders a further period of detention in respect of a breach of a DTO, the offender will be sent to prison. This subsection needs to be read with section 74(8) of the Act which provides that an offender aged between 18 and 21 will not be sent to prison under section 104(4A) until such time as section 61 of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 is commenced (and the sentence of detention in a young offenders institution is abolished). Until that time 18 to 21 year olds will be sent to youth detention accommodation, which includes young offender institutions (see section 107 of the PCC(S)A 2000).
445.Subsection (6) extends the right of appeal to the Crown Court that currently exists where an offender is given a further period of detention for breach of a DTO to the new power to impose an additional period of supervision.
446.Subsection (7) inserts new sections 104A and 104B into the PCC(S)A 2000. New section 104A applies certain provision in the PCC(S)A 2000 relating to DTOs to orders under section 104(3)(aa) that an offender serve a further period of supervision, with the necessary modifications:
section 104A(1) and (2) applies section 103 (which provides for how a period of supervision under a DTO operates);
section 104A(3) to (5) applies section 104 (which deals with breach of DTO supervision requirements) and section 105 (which makes provision for when an offender commits an offence when subject to supervision).
447.In broad terms, the further period of supervision works in a similar way to the period of supervision under a DTO. In particular, requirements can be imposed on the offender under section 103 of the PCC(S)A 2000, as applied, and enforced under section 104 of that Act, again as applied. And, if the offender commits an imprisonable offence while subject to a further period of supervision, then the offender can be detained in youth detention accommodation under section 105, as applied.
448.The fact that a court can deal with an offender who breaches requirements imposed in respect of a further period of supervision in the same way that it can deal with someone who has breached the supervision requirements of a DTO, means that there could be a series of orders under section 104(3)(aa). If an offender breaches a DTO and is given a further of supervision which the offender then also breaches, the court can once again respond by imposing further supervision (or detention or a fine). And if requirements attached to that further period of supervision are also then breached, another period of supervision could be ordered in respect of that breach and so on. This continues to be the case until the offender completes the order of the court without breaching it.
449.New section 104B provides for the interaction between the new power to impose periods of detention beyond the end of the original DTO and other sentences. Subsections (1) to (4) provide for the interaction between a period of further detention and a DTO. New subsection 104B(5) provides a power for the Secretary of State to make regulations to provide for the interaction between a period of detention imposed for breach and custodial sentences other than a DTO.
450.A further period of detention can be imposed for breach after the term of the DTO has ended. It can also be imposed in respect of the breach of a requirement attached to a period of further supervision under section 104(3)(aa), which may itself have been imposed after the end of the DTO. It is therefore possible for a period of detention to be imposed under section 104(3)(a) after the offender has turned 18 or even 21. For this reason it is necessary to set out for the courts how the breach period will interact with adult sentences.
451.Subsections (10) and (11) apply the provision made by the section to any breach of a DTO that occurs after commencement.
[2008] EWHC 3463