Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make a comparative assessment of the number of children (a) detained in police custody and (b) remanded by criminal courts in each of the past three years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes data on detentions in police custody, including age of the person detained. Data for the year ending March 2022 is available here:
Police powers and procedures: Other PACE powers, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
As this was the first year of data collection, not all forces were able to provide data. As such, the data are based on a subset of 26 out of 43 territorial police forces and are labelled as experimental statistics due to data quality issues, therefore should be interpreted with caution. Of the forces that provided data, there were 546,170 people detained in custody, of whom 35,114 were children (aged under 18).
Data on children remanded by criminal courts, including children remanded at a police station, are published by the Ministry for Justice. Data for 2021 are available here:
Criminal justice statistics quarterly - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Magistrates courts tool: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1113402/remands-magistrates-court-tool-2021-revised-2.xlsx
Crown court tool: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1113403/remands-crown-court-tool-2021-revised-2.xlsx
Since the custody and criminal courts datasets cover different time periods, and the custody data is based on a subset of 26 forces, a comparison between datasets has not been made.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to amend the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 to align with the changes to the criteria for the use of court remand for children introduced in the Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Police custody is a core element of the criminal justice system and is critical for keeping the public safe. The Government maintains that children should only be detained in custody as a last resort and any opportunities to divert children away from custody should be taken.
The Government is aware of concerns regarding children being detained in police custody overnight and therefore introduced the Concordat on Children in Custody protocol for when children have been charged and bail has been refused. The Concordat sets out the statutory duties of the police and local authorities and provides a protocol for how transfers of children from custody to local authority accommodation should work in practice.
The Government has no plans to amend the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 at present but will keep under review the implementation of the changes for court remand for children introduced in the Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the statistics published by her Department entitled Police powers and procedures, published on 17 November 2022, if she will make it her policy to require the collection of specific offences currently identified as non-notifiable offences for which children are detained in police custody.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The collection and publication of this data will bring additional transparency and accountability to police custody in England and Wales and help us better understand how and why police powers and procedures are used within the custody process. We intend to build on this by working with police forces and the NPCC to improve data quality in future years.
The police custody data collection became mandatory for 2022/23. We will continue to keep the scope of the data we request from forces under review. All data collections and new requests are reviewed each year by the Policing Data Requirement Group (PDRG) to ensure that data requested from the police is proportionate to the need for the data and that forces have the technical capabilities to provide the data requested.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of her Department's involvement in the Children in Custody Golden Hour Information Exchange pilot with the Metropolitan Police.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Department has made no formal assessment of the Children in Custody Golden Hour Information Exchange initiative.
The initiative supports how children are transferred between police custody and local authority accommodation. It operated in three London boroughs for the last two years. The Metropolitan Police are now sharing this practice across the entire London area, with a desire to encourage similar national practice.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's statistics Police Powers and Procedures, published on 17 November 2022, what recent discussions she has had with police forces in (a) Essex and (b) Merseyside on the number of children detained in police custody without an Appropriate Adult being called.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The collection and publication of data on police custody will bring additional transparency and accountability to custody in England and Wales and help us better understand how and why police powers and procedures are used within the custody process. The Home Office only received data from a subset of forces so the findings should be interpreted with caution as it is partial and not representative of the national picture. We will work with police forces and the NPCC to improve data quality in the future and use the data published on 17 November to inform conversations with the police and other stakeholders to promote wider policy development.
All data collections are reviewed each year by the Policing Data Requirement Group (PDRG) to ensure that the amount of data requested from the police is proportionate and that forces have the technical capabilities to provide the data requested. We will be considering the feasibility of collecting data on the period of time between a child being detained in police custody, an Appropriate Adult first being in attendance and the average time taken for an AA to arrive.
Police custody is a core element of the criminal justice system and is critical for keeping the public safe. Children should only be detained in custody as a last resort and any opportunities to divert children away from custody should be taken. The data published on 17 November suggests that children were more likely to be detained in custody for robbery offences, possession of weapons offences and theft offences and less likely to be in custody for non-notifiable offences. It is positive to see that the number of children in police custody has decreased significantly, by 84%, over the last 10 years.
We hold regular discussions with policing and wider stakeholders on the availability of Appropriate Adults and custody policy in general. The data published on 17 November shows that, for the forces who provided data to us, an Appropriate Adult was called for 99% of children in custody. We expect forces to act in accordance with the statutory safeguards for children in custody, including the provision of appropriate adults. Procedures in custody are subject to independent scrutiny and oversight by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services. We expect forces to take recommendations from HMICFRS seriously and act in response to them.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the average time between a child being detained in police custody and an Appropriate Adult being in attendance.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The collection and publication of data on police custody will bring additional transparency and accountability to custody in England and Wales and help us better understand how and why police powers and procedures are used within the custody process. The Home Office only received data from a subset of forces so the findings should be interpreted with caution as it is partial and not representative of the national picture. We will work with police forces and the NPCC to improve data quality in the future and use the data published on 17 November to inform conversations with the police and other stakeholders to promote wider policy development.
All data collections are reviewed each year by the Policing Data Requirement Group (PDRG) to ensure that the amount of data requested from the police is proportionate and that forces have the technical capabilities to provide the data requested. We will be considering the feasibility of collecting data on the period of time between a child being detained in police custody, an Appropriate Adult first being in attendance and the average time taken for an AA to arrive.
Police custody is a core element of the criminal justice system and is critical for keeping the public safe. Children should only be detained in custody as a last resort and any opportunities to divert children away from custody should be taken. The data published on 17 November suggests that children were more likely to be detained in custody for robbery offences, possession of weapons offences and theft offences and less likely to be in custody for non-notifiable offences. It is positive to see that the number of children in police custody has decreased significantly, by 84%, over the last 10 years.
We hold regular discussions with policing and wider stakeholders on the availability of Appropriate Adults and custody policy in general. The data published on 17 November shows that, for the forces who provided data to us, an Appropriate Adult was called for 99% of children in custody. We expect forces to act in accordance with the statutory safeguards for children in custody, including the provision of appropriate adults. Procedures in custody are subject to independent scrutiny and oversight by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services. We expect forces to take recommendations from HMICFRS seriously and act in response to them.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's statistics Police Powers and Procedures, published on 17 November 2022, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her Department's policies of the number of children detained in police custody for non-notifiable offences.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The collection and publication of data on police custody will bring additional transparency and accountability to custody in England and Wales and help us better understand how and why police powers and procedures are used within the custody process. The Home Office only received data from a subset of forces so the findings should be interpreted with caution as it is partial and not representative of the national picture. We will work with police forces and the NPCC to improve data quality in the future and use the data published on 17 November to inform conversations with the police and other stakeholders to promote wider policy development.
All data collections are reviewed each year by the Policing Data Requirement Group (PDRG) to ensure that the amount of data requested from the police is proportionate and that forces have the technical capabilities to provide the data requested. We will be considering the feasibility of collecting data on the period of time between a child being detained in police custody, an Appropriate Adult first being in attendance and the average time taken for an AA to arrive.
Police custody is a core element of the criminal justice system and is critical for keeping the public safe. Children should only be detained in custody as a last resort and any opportunities to divert children away from custody should be taken. The data published on 17 November suggests that children were more likely to be detained in custody for robbery offences, possession of weapons offences and theft offences and less likely to be in custody for non-notifiable offences. It is positive to see that the number of children in police custody has decreased significantly, by 84%, over the last 10 years.
We hold regular discussions with policing and wider stakeholders on the availability of Appropriate Adults and custody policy in general. The data published on 17 November shows that, for the forces who provided data to us, an Appropriate Adult was called for 99% of children in custody. We expect forces to act in accordance with the statutory safeguards for children in custody, including the provision of appropriate adults. Procedures in custody are subject to independent scrutiny and oversight by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services. We expect forces to take recommendations from HMICFRS seriously and act in response to them.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will collect data from police forces in England and Wales on the period of time between a child being detained in police custody and an Appropriate Adult first being in attendance.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The collection and publication of data on police custody will bring additional transparency and accountability to custody in England and Wales and help us better understand how and why police powers and procedures are used within the custody process. The Home Office only received data from a subset of forces so the findings should be interpreted with caution as it is partial and not representative of the national picture. We will work with police forces and the NPCC to improve data quality in the future and use the data published on 17 November to inform conversations with the police and other stakeholders to promote wider policy development.
All data collections are reviewed each year by the Policing Data Requirement Group (PDRG) to ensure that the amount of data requested from the police is proportionate and that forces have the technical capabilities to provide the data requested. We will be considering the feasibility of collecting data on the period of time between a child being detained in police custody, an Appropriate Adult first being in attendance and the average time taken for an AA to arrive.
Police custody is a core element of the criminal justice system and is critical for keeping the public safe. Children should only be detained in custody as a last resort and any opportunities to divert children away from custody should be taken. The data published on 17 November suggests that children were more likely to be detained in custody for robbery offences, possession of weapons offences and theft offences and less likely to be in custody for non-notifiable offences. It is positive to see that the number of children in police custody has decreased significantly, by 84%, over the last 10 years.
We hold regular discussions with policing and wider stakeholders on the availability of Appropriate Adults and custody policy in general. The data published on 17 November shows that, for the forces who provided data to us, an Appropriate Adult was called for 99% of children in custody. We expect forces to act in accordance with the statutory safeguards for children in custody, including the provision of appropriate adults. Procedures in custody are subject to independent scrutiny and oversight by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services. We expect forces to take recommendations from HMICFRS seriously and act in response to them.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria the police use to determine whether an adult in police custody is classified as vulnerable.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The collection and publication of data on police custody will bring additional transparency and accountability to custody in England and Wales and help us better understand how and why police powers and procedures are used within the custody process. The Home Office only received data from a subset of forces so the findings should be interpreted with caution as it is partial and not representative of the national picture. We will work with police forces and the NPCC to improve data quality in the future and use the data published on 17 November to inform conversations with the police and other stakeholders to promote wider policy development.
The police custody data collection became mandatory for 2022/23. From April 2023, Home Office will request data from forces and then assess the quality of the data which will help inform future decisions made by the Policing Data Requirement Group (PDRG) as to whether the collection remains mandatory. All data collections are reviewed each year by the PDRG to ensure that data requested from the police is proportionate to the need for the data and that forces have the technical capabilities to provide the data requested.
There is a formal definition of vulnerability which police officers are expected to use to determine vulnerability of adults in police custody. It is set out in paragraph 1.13 (d) of Code C to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE). Custody officers should therefore carry out vulnerability assessments of everyone in custody in line with this definition.
Section 3.15 of PACE Code C requires the custody officer to secure an appropriate adult for any vulnerable adult detained in police custody.
Strip search is an important policing tool that can help the police recover concealed drugs, weapons or other items which may cause harm to themselves or the person being searched. Strip search is one of the most intrusive powers available to the police and its use must be fair, respectful and without unlawful discrimination. No one should be strip searched based on any protected characteristics including race, sex, and age. Any use of strip search should be carried out in accordance with the law and with full regard for the welfare and dignity of the individual being searched, particularly if that individual is a child.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to introduce a legal requirement for vulnerable adults to have an Appropriate Adult present when detained in police custody.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The collection and publication of data on police custody will bring additional transparency and accountability to custody in England and Wales and help us better understand how and why police powers and procedures are used within the custody process. The Home Office only received data from a subset of forces so the findings should be interpreted with caution as it is partial and not representative of the national picture. We will work with police forces and the NPCC to improve data quality in the future and use the data published on 17 November to inform conversations with the police and other stakeholders to promote wider policy development.
The police custody data collection became mandatory for 2022/23. From April 2023, Home Office will request data from forces and then assess the quality of the data which will help inform future decisions made by the Policing Data Requirement Group (PDRG) as to whether the collection remains mandatory. All data collections are reviewed each year by the PDRG to ensure that data requested from the police is proportionate to the need for the data and that forces have the technical capabilities to provide the data requested.
There is a formal definition of vulnerability which police officers are expected to use to determine vulnerability of adults in police custody. It is set out in paragraph 1.13 (d) of Code C to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE). Custody officers should therefore carry out vulnerability assessments of everyone in custody in line with this definition.
Section 3.15 of PACE Code C requires the custody officer to secure an appropriate adult for any vulnerable adult detained in police custody.
Strip search is an important policing tool that can help the police recover concealed drugs, weapons or other items which may cause harm to themselves or the person being searched. Strip search is one of the most intrusive powers available to the police and its use must be fair, respectful and without unlawful discrimination. No one should be strip searched based on any protected characteristics including race, sex, and age. Any use of strip search should be carried out in accordance with the law and with full regard for the welfare and dignity of the individual being searched, particularly if that individual is a child.