Ms Marisa Gomez:

One of the changes that the Bill is going to bring means that some of the community sanctions will continue to be applicable when the child turns 18, so that they would continue to be under the supervision of a probation officer, to recognise this for the duration. At the moment, when a child offender turns 18, the order expires and is not applicable any more. For three of the sanctions we have at the moment, with this change they will continue to be applicable when a person turns 18. The opposite would be that there are a number of sanctions that will continue to expire that have a residential component. It means the child will be going into residential centres and once they turn 18 and become an adult, it may not be appropriate for them to be going there. This change will bring some flexibility to the situation.