Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the reasons for which some Just Stop Oil protestors who were under the age of 18 were held on remand in adult prisons.

Custody should always be a last resort for children, including on remand. The Government raised the legal test for remanding a child to custody in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. A child must have committed a violent or sexual offence or have been charged with an offence where an adult may receive a custodial sentence of 14 years, and the court must consider it very likely that the child will receive a custodial sentence.

Any person under the age of 18 will not be remanded in an adult prison. Instead, they are remanded into Young Offender Institutions (YOIs), a Secure Training Centre (STC), or Secure Children’s Homes (SCHs). Specific placement decisions for custodial remands are made by the Youth Custody Service (YCS), factoring in the needs of the child.