Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans he has to encourage police forces who have not published data on the number of children detained in police custody ahead of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical data on 17 November 2022 to publish that data in the future.

Children should only be detained in police custody when absolutely necessary. It is extremely positive that the number of children in police custody has decreased significantly over the last 10 years. However, sometimes it is operationally necessary to detain children in order to investigate alleged offences, bring offenders to justice and keep people safe. Children are rightly acknowledged as a protected group with specific needs and vulnerabilities and any detention of a child must be lawful, proportionate and carried out in accordance with appropriate safeguards and guidance.

The College of Policing (CoP) Detention and Custody Authorised Professional Practice provides the framework and guidance for which police custody suites operate. The CoP has developed a one-day immersive training course for custody officers and staff focusing on high-risk scenarios, including one involving a detained child, that may be encountered in a custody suite. It will help officers take an individual approach to each detainee to best manage their welfare and minimise risk. In addition, The CoP’s foundation training involves a substantial input regarding detaining and escorting suspects to custody, taking into consideration the vulnerability and risk factors of each suspect.

The Government published the Concordat on Children in Custody in 2017. The Concordat sets out the statutory duties of the police and local authorities and provides a protocol for how transfers from police custody into local authority care should work in practice. Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide accommodation for any child charged and denied bail unless it is impractical to do so. The Home Office frequently raises awareness of the Concordat in meetings with policing stakeholders.

Information on the ethnicity of children detained in custody is currently collected using the 2011 Census 18+1 categories, which includes the ‘Gypsy and Irish traveller’ group. From the year ending March 2024 the Home Office has proposed to start collecting ethnicity data from forces using the 2021 Census 19+1 categories, which includes the ‘Roma’ group.

The police custody data collection is currently voluntary and ahead of its publication on 17 November as part of the Police Powers and Procedures bulletin will be assessed for its quality. The Home Office is aware that due to various technical issues, not all forces have been able to provide a full and accurate data set. The Home Office is working with forces and the NPCC to help improve the quality and number of responses received from forces.