Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of Barnardo’s report entitled Double discrimination: Black care-experienced young adults navigating the criminal justice system, published on 21 September 2023.

We are grateful for the work Barnardo's have done to highlight the challenges faced by young black care-experienced people in our criminal justice system, and look forward to working with Barnardo's further to ensure we are tackling these issues.

Across the criminal justice system, we are taking forward an extensive programme of work to tackle unexplained disparities where they are identified. The Inclusive Britain strategy is central to the development of this work and contains some of our flagship efforts.

We are also updating our strategy for people with care experience in the criminal justice system, to ensure we are using care-experienced people’s time in the criminal justice system to support them to lead crime-free lives. This will include a focus on race and its role in shaping the experiences and outcomes of those with care experience in the criminal justice system.

We are aiming to publish this strategy later this year.