First of all, I think that practice varies to some extent across the country in terms of the kinds of records that are being kept, particularly around extrajudicial measures and, to a lesser extent, about extrajudicial sanctions. They're the two categories. And there are questions about how that information is shared between police forces and how it is kept.
One concern I have, if you will, is philosophical. Why are we singling out this provision and why are we telling police forces that we don't think they're doing their job properly and that we think they must have it there? I think in principle it is desirable for forces to keep those kinds of records. Of course, increasingly with computers they have records of all kinds of things, not just of extrajudicial sanctions. Every time they talk to someone on the street, it's in their data bank.
I worry about the symbolic message this sends, first of all, by telling police forces what they're doing, and, secondly, about the nature of programs intended to divert young people and not to treat their offences as criminal. It sends a very mixed message. That's my biggest concern.