Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many injuries were sustained by children during restraint in each custodial institution in each of the last eight years.

As the Justice Secretary has said, the safety and welfare of all those in custody is vital.

Although youth crime is down, reoffending rates are far too high and the care and supervision of young people in custody is not good enough. Restraint should only be used as a last resort, when young people are putting their own safety and the safety of others at risk.

In 2012, we introduced the Minimising and Managing Physical Restraint (MMPR). Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons has welcomed the significant improvements that MMPR has brought.

The number of minor and serious injuries requiring medical treatment resulting from RPIs is published in Chapter 8 of the Youth Justice Annual Statistics:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/youth-justice-annual-statistics-2014-to-2015

We are investigating the accuracy of all restraint injury data from Medway Secure Training Centre.

The number of young people that establishments recorded as injured during incidents that required Restrictive Physical Intervention in each institution in the youth secure estate in each of the last eight years is set out in the attached document. This includes the following categories of injury: (i) serious injury requiring hospital treatment (ii) minor injuries requiring medical treatment and (iii) minor injuries, no treatment required.