Remand in Custody: Children

(asked on 13th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the proportions of the unconvicted children held on remand in youth detention accommodation during 2019 who were remanded to that accommodation on the basis of consideration of each of the following sets of conditions, with reference to the Youth Court Bench Book published in August 2017: (a) 31 a, b, ci, di; (b) 31 a, b, ci, dii; (c) 31 a, b, cii, di; (d) 31 a, b, cii, dii; (e) 32 a, b, c, di, ei, fi; (f) 32 a, b, c, di, ei, fii; (g) 32 a, b, c, di, eii, fi; (h) 32 a, b, c, di, eii, fii; (i) 32 a, b, c, dii, ei, fi; (j) 32 a, b c, dii, ei, fii; (k) 32 a, b, c, dii, eii, fi; and (l) 32 a, b, c, dii, eii, fii.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 22nd May 2020

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes the number of unconvicted children on remand (including in youth detention accommodation), which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2018. Figures for 2019 will be published later in May.

The Ministry of Justice does not centrally hold data on reasons why children are held on remand.

The decision on whether a child should be remanded into custody is a matter for our independent judiciary. We are clear that custody, including custodial remand, should always be used as a last resort for children, and the remand framework ensures the court considers all other options, including bail and remand into local authority accommodation, before remanding a child to custody.

We are currently undertaking work to consider the use of youth custodial remand and in due course we aim to identify options to reduce the numbers of children remanded to custody where appropriate, while ensuring victims and the public are protected.

Reticulating Splines