Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the meeting of the Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire with the Youth Endowment Fund on 16 March 2023, whether they discussed (a) the role of the appropriate adult for children detained in police custody, (b) legal advice for children detained in police custody and (c) opportunities to divert children from entering police custody.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office works closely with the Youth Endowment Fund on a wide range of issues, specifically aimed at reducing serious violence.
Home Office Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of international partners, as well as organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of these meetings are published on the Cabinet Office website on a quarterly basis.
Children should only be detained by police when absolutely necessary, and the number of children arrested by the police is declining. In the 10 years from 2011/12 to 2021/22, the number of children aged 10-17 arrested by the police fell by 67%. Children aged 10-17 accounted for 8% of all arrests in the latest year, compared with 14% in 2011/12.
Children detained in police custody must be provided with an appropriate adult. The Home Office part funds the National Association of Appropriate Adults (NAAN), which supports organisations providing appropriate adult services to young people and vulnerable adults in police custody.
The Home Office is a member of the steering group for the recent Nuffield Foundation-funded research project “Examining the impact of PACE on the detention and questioning of young suspects”, and the follow-up project, “Children in police custody: piloting a ‘Child First’ approach”.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Derby (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many children are being held on remand in the most recent period for which data is available; and whether they are taking steps to reduce this.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
As at 31 March 2023, there were 244 children and young people remanded to custody in the Youth Secure Estate (this figure includes 18-year-olds). Remanding a child to custody must always be a last resort, however that option must remain open to the courts where it is necessary to protect the public.
In 2022, the Government strengthened the tests the courts must satisfy to remand a child to custody, through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Act, and published a review of the use of custodial remand for children. We continue to work through the review’s recommendations with youth justice partners to ensure custodial remand is used proportionately. This includes launching a consultation in summer 2023 on options for reforming remand grant funding to facilitate better use of community provision and services for children at risk of custodial remand.
The Government commissioned a forthcoming HMI Probation, HMI Prisons and Ofsted independent joint thematic inspection on youth remand, which will help identify further opportunities for reducing the number of children on remand.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to enable child victims of sexual violence to (a) provide video evidence ahead of a trial and (b) receive counselling immediately.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Child victims of sexual violence are eligible for special measures, including pre-recording their evidence, under Section 16 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 (YJCEA), which considers all children as vulnerable witnesses. This enables the recording to be presented during the trial without the witness needing to attend, which helps them give their best evidence to the court and mitigate some of the stress associated with giving evidence. The aim is to enhance the quality and reliability of evidence by improving experiences of cross-examination and enhancing event recall by reducing the time between complaint and cross-examination.
Under the Victims’ Code, all victims, including children, have the right to receive information about and be referred to support services, including therapy and counselling, regardless of whether anyone has been charged or convicted of a criminal offence, or whether they decide to report the crime to the police or do not wish to cooperate with the investigation.
The Ministry of Justice is more than quadrupling funding for victims and witness support services by 2024/25, up from £41m in 2009/10. This includes funding for Police and Crime Commissioners to commission services supporting victims of sexual violence, including services providing counselling to children.
The Ministry of Justice is currently recommissioning the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund, to make sure it meets the needs of all victims in the most effective way, including child victims of sexual violence. This funding is available to specialist, community-based sexual abuse support services to deliver a range of help, including counselling, to child and adult victims to cope, recover, build resilience and move forward with daily life.
Additionally, NHS England commissions 48 Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) across England with at least one in each county/region to ensure equitable spread. SARCs offer medical, practical and emotional support to anyone who has been raped, sexually assaulted or abused, including child victims of sexual violence.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to ensure that child abuse claims are dealt with in a timely fashion within the criminal justice system.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Child sexual abuse cases are some of the most challenging, complex and sensitive cases. They are dealt with by specially trained prosecutors, working closely with the police to build the strongest possible cases that meet the legal test.
In 2020-2021 there were 6,402 prosecutions for cases classified as child abuse. In the same period the conviction rate was 85.6%, an increase of 2.7% on the previous year.
Listing and prioritisation is a judicial function and judges continue to work to prioritise cases involving vulnerable complainants and witnesses (including youth cases), domestic abuse and serious sex cases. The most effective method to ensure that child abuse cases are dealt with in a timely fashion once they get to court is to expand our capacity, so that all cases requiring jury trial can be heard swiftly. To achieve this, among various other measures, we removed the limit on the number of days the Crown Court can sit in the 21/22 financial year, and equipped over 70 per cent of all courtrooms with the video hardware to use Cloud Video Platform, which enabled up to 20,000 cases to be heard virtually each week at the height of the pandemic. These measures are working. The caseload in the Crown Court has reduced from around 61,000 cases in June 2021 to around 58,400 cases at the end of December 2021.
Looking ahead, we will be investing £477 million in the Criminal Justice System to improve waiting times for victims and to reduce the Crown Court backlogs caused by the pandemic from 60,000 cases today to an estimated 53,000 cases by March 2025. We are also extending magistrates’ court sentencing powers from 6 to 12 months for a single Triable Either Way offence to allow more cases to be heard in the magistrates' court. As a result of these measures, in the next financial year we expect to get through 20% more Crown Court cases than we did pre-Covid (116,700 in 22/23 compared to 97,000 in 19/20).
Having the right data across the criminal justice system is also crucial to recovery. Working with our partners across the justice system, we have published criminal justice scorecards which bring together data on key areas of performance, including timeliness. The national CJS scorecards for all-crime and recorded adult rape, published in December 2021, can be found here: https://data.justice.gov.uk/cjs-scorecard-all-crime
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what funding her Department is making available in Feltham and Heston constituency to support programmes working with children and young people who are at risk of crime.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Tackling crime and serious violence is a Government priority.
Between 2019 and 2022, we have provided The London Mayor’s Office of Police & Crime with £21 million to develop London’s multi-agency Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), which brings together local partners to identify and tackle the drivers of violence.
The London VRU works closely with all 32 boroughs to deliver a range of interventions that aim to prevent vulnerable young people from engaging in or falling victim to violent crimes. It focuses on capacity building at a local level to help communities respond to serious violence, such as targeted work with young people in Hounslow education settings through their Schools Violence Reduction Project. We are also investing a further £5.5 million in the London VRU this year to provide specific support to young people at high risk of engagement in violence.
We are also investing £200 million in the 10-year Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) which identifies what works to divert children and young people away from serious violent crime. The YEF have invested in two projects delivering in the London Borough of Hounslow: £28,500 into the Horn of Africa Youth Association, which delivers a 'Youth Empowerment Project’; and £35,000 into the Hounslow Action for Youth Association, which delivers a ‘Young Women’s Writing Project’.
We are driving targeted action to respond to the exploitation of children through the Home Office-funded Prevention Programme, delivered by The Children’s Society. Coordinators in each of the ten policing regions, including London, work with a range of statutory, third and private sector partners to improve understanding of child criminal exploitation and other forms of exploitation and assist collaborative approaches to preventing exploitation and supporting victims.
Through the £13.2m Trusted Relationships Fund, which supports children at risk of exploitation, including criminal exploitation, we are funding a project in the London Borough of Hounslow to deliver intensive support to young people aimed to increase wellbeing, improve engagement in positive activities, and reduce the number of children who enter the Youth Justice System.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to build trust in the criminal justice system among young people.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is taking action to reduce crime and put victims at the heart of the criminal justice system, and we listen closely to young people’s voices and perspectives as we do so.
The Beating Crime Plan sets out a clear plan for less crime, fewer victims and a safer country, including for example £45m for specialist teams to support young people at risk of involvement in violence to re-engage in education, as well as new plans to support victims including tackling violence against women and girls and child sexual exploitation.
On engagement we are making the system more representative of our diverse society and work with the Youth Justice Board’s Youth Advisory Network Ambassadors to understand children’s concerns and inform policy.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support a public health approach to policing.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The department is committed to driving the key tenets of a public health approach in policing.
We have invested £105.5m over three years (2019-2022) into the development of 18 Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in the areas worst affected by serious violence across England and Wales. VRUs are designed to deliver a multi-agency, Public Health Approach to preventing serious violence, combining the collective expertise of key local partners to identify the root causes of violent crime and agree an appropriate response. In year one alone, VRUs reached over 100,000 vulnerable young people across the risk spectrum through a range of interventions.
Through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, we are also creating a new duty on a range of specified agencies, such as the police, local government, youth offending teams, health and probation services, to work collaboratively, share data and information and put in place plans to prevent and reduce serious violence within their local communities. We also continue to work closely with DfE, DHSC and MoJ to ensure join-up between local practitioners – including police. This includes work to embed the reforms made to multi-agency safeguarding arrangements to drive collaboration on child safeguarding
Furthermore, the Home Office funds the NPCC’s Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme, which identifies best practice across police forces in responding to incidents and investigations involving vulnerable people. The programme contributes to the wider evidence base on the most effective policing approaches.
Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to publish his Department's review of youth custodial remand.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Ministry of Justice committed to look into the use of custodial remand for youth following a recommendation by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
My officials have concluded the engagement and data collection stages of the review; its conclusions and our next steps will be published in due course.
The Government is already taking action to improve the remand framework and process. The proposals in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill will strengthen the tests applied by the courts to ensure children are only remanded to custody as a last resort and will require courts to record their reasons for any custodial remand.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government is taking to tackle race disparity in the youth justice system, particularly with regard to those held on remand.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
We want people to have confidence in a justice system that is fair and open—one where no person suffers discrimination of any sort.
The over-representation of ethnic minority children in the youth justice system is a real concern and we continue to prioritise understanding and tackling disparities.
The MoJ Youth Justice Policy Unit, the Youth Justice Board and the Youth Custody Service work closely together on this. Work includes providing the tools and data to help frontline youth justice services to understand the needs of ethnic minority children, work with the Magistrates’ Association to build awareness of disproportionality among sentencers, and securing over £1m in funding to use physical activity to improve outcomes for 11,000 ethnic minority children at risk of entering the criminal justice system.
In relation to remand, we are also exploring race disparities in the context of a departmental review into the use of custodial remand for children. In addition, the steps we are taking through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to tighten the tests courts must apply to remand children to custody also have the potential to help reduce disparity in remand decisions.
More broadly, work directly within the youth justice system can only partially address inequalities, as ‘upstream’ factors which increase the likelihood of a child appearing in the youth justice system are also disproportionate. Cross Government work on education, health and policing, all important areas upstream of MoJ’s remit, recognises the importance of equalities.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department takes to support people with minor offenses on their record received when they were a minor; and whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of changing the system of automatic revelation of past convictions.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
We are committed to supporting children in turning their lives around and recognise that having a criminal record can have a significant impact on children, and adults that offended as a child. Youth criminal records are treated differently to adult criminal records in terms of disclosure, as those with convictions received when under 18 are generally disclosed for a shorter period than those of adults.
There have recently been significant reforms in this area:
In November 2020, the Government implemented legislation to change the rules governing disclosure for sensitive roles (those working with children, vulnerable adults or in a position of public trust). This removed the disclosure of youth cautions, reprimands and warnings and the multiple conviction rule. Previously, if an individual had more than one conviction, each conviction had to be disclosed on standard or enhanced certificates irrespective of the nature of the offences or the time separating them. This legislation removed that requirement and will particularly benefit those with childhood cautions who have moved away from their past.
We are also proposing further changes to help those who committed minor offences as children to move on with their lives. The Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, currently in Commons committee stage, proposes significant reductions to rehabilitation periods (the length of time that someone needs to disclose their criminal record for general purposes) for custodial sentences of under four years and community sentences, including for childhood convictions.
These significant changes to the criminal records disclosure regime will support those who have not committed serious offences and have ceased offending, bettering their chance of accessing employment and reducing their likelihood of reoffending.
Regarding the rules surrounding automatic disclosure of past convictions, we have considered whether a sealing/review mechanism for youth criminal records disclosure would be desirable. However, the Justice Committee (report into Youth Justice) in 2017 recognised that introducing a mechanism whereby records could become ‘sealed’ would create unsustainable pressures on the decision-making body and found that an automatic filtering system should be retained, albeit with substantial revisions. This aligns with the 2019 Supreme Court ruling on aspects of the disclosure regime, in which the Court was clear that such a mechanism was not necessary for a proportionate system. We are therefore not pursuing proposals on sealing criminal records by application, rather focusing on the rules which determine criminal records and their disclosure.