Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a right to review for children held in custody cells for more than 20 hours per day.

Following the H M Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) thematic report on separation in under-18 Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) published in January, and the subsequent publication of the Separation Taskforce’s report in June, we have committed to establishing a new system and approach for separation, with work now progressing. This work and policy will include a range of aspects, including review of decisions and representations.

This is in addition to immediate actions taken in response of the HMIP thematic report, including: the introduction of additional resources to ensure robust management and improve national and local oversight; the introduction of a national single point of contact to review oversight arrangements for separation, ensuring local accountability is in place across establishments and feeding in centrally; and a new approach to ensure separation data for public sector YOIs is captured centrally on a monthly basis.