Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many life sentences have been handed out to people under the age of 16 in the last five years.

Between year ending September 2021 and year ending September 2025, 10 defendants aged under 16 have been given a life sentence. This is a further breakdown of published sentencing outcomes data released routinely as part of the Accredited Official Statistics series Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly which is available here: Criminal Justice Statistics.