Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy that young people over the age of 18 will not be placed in the Oasis Restore School.

It has never been the policy automatically to transfer young people to the adult estate on reaching the age of 18. Some 18-year-olds have always been managed in the youth estate, when they were nearing the end of their sentence or it was deemed to be the most appropriate location for them.

While there can be benefits for the individual young person in remaining in the youth secure estate beyond the age of 18, it is necessary also to have regard to the wider effect on the youth estate, and to the needs of the secure estate as a whole. The cohort of 18-year-olds within the estate is monitored closely. Performance data and local intelligence help to inform placement and transition decisions.

All decisions whether to relocate are taken on a case-by case basis, considering both the needs of the individual young person and the safety and safeguarding of others. Where appropriate, some 18-year-olds continue to be moved into the adult estate. Newly-sentenced or -remanded 18-year-olds continue to be placed into over-18 establishments.

Young people over the age of 18 will not be placed in the Oasis Restore School, but the interim policy of retaining 18-year-olds in youth custody will apply to the school when it opens in Spring 2024.

As this is an interim policy, we envisage that, when it concludes, the number of young people over 18 in the youth estate will return to previous levels. We plan to review the interim policy towards the end of 2024.