Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many children are held on remand in (a) youth offending institutions, (b) secure training centres and (c) other secure units.

Custodial remand should only be used as a last resort for children and only in the most serious cases. When a child is remanded to custody, the child’s case is regularly reviewed by the local Youth Offending Team which, if appropriate, will apply to the court for a bail hearing. The court will then carefully consider the circumstances of the case and reach a decision on whether to bail a child into the community, or remand the child back to custody. These decisions must be considered by the court on a case by case basis, and a child will only be released from custodial remand into the community, if the court deems it is safe to do so. Courts are working very closely with the judiciary to prioritise caseload and case types. We are continually reviewing procedures to support access to justice during the emergency period due to Covid-19, particularly for the most time-critical and sensitive cases, such as youth custodial remand cases.

Information on the number of children held in remand across the Youth Secure Estate is published regularly as part of the Youth Custody Data series, via https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/youth-custody-data

The latest available published data from the end of February 2020 show that 293 young people were on remand at this time. Analysis of this data provides the following breakdown per sector:

Young Offender Institutions – 214

Secure Training Centres – 39

Secure Children’s Homes – 40

Total – 293