Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the report published on 15 August by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons on the lower site at Hindley Young Offenders Institution, which found that "boys sometimes had less than 15 minutes a day to exercise in the open air", whether they have any plans to reconsider national policies on how long boys spend out of their cells.

Improving outcomes in under-18 Young Offenders Institutions (YOIs) is one of the key objectives of our plans to Transform Youth Custody. A new operating specification has been developed for under-18 YOIs. This requires that every young person has access to a minimum of ten hours out of their rooms which includes a minimum of one hour in the open air each day. Our plans are to implement this revised regime across all under-18 YOIs during 2015.

We believe we need to do more than improve the existing estate which is why the Government intends to open a pathfinder Secure College, a new form of secure establishment which will put education at the heart of youth custody, in the East Midlands in 2017.