Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the meeting of the Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire with the Youth Endowment Fund on 16 March 2023, whether they discussed (a) the role of the appropriate adult for children detained in police custody, (b) legal advice for children detained in police custody and (c) opportunities to divert children from entering police custody.

The Home Office works closely with the Youth Endowment Fund on a wide range of issues, specifically aimed at reducing serious violence.

Home Office Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of international partners, as well as organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of these meetings are published on the Cabinet Office website on a quarterly basis.

Children should only be detained by police when absolutely necessary, and the number of children arrested by the police is declining. In the 10 years from 2011/12 to 2021/22, the number of children aged 10-17 arrested by the police fell by 67%. Children aged 10-17 accounted for 8% of all arrests in the latest year, compared with 14% in 2011/12.

Children detained in police custody must be provided with an appropriate adult. The Home Office part funds the National Association of Appropriate Adults (NAAN), which supports organisations providing appropriate adult services to young people and vulnerable adults in police custody.

The Home Office is a member of the steering group for the recent Nuffield Foundation-funded research project “Examining the impact of PACE on the detention and questioning of young suspects”, and the follow-up project, “Children in police custody: piloting a ‘Child First’ approach”.