Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 7 November 2014 to Question 213434, what the (a) average number and (b) proportion of Black and minority ethnic offenders in youth custody was in each (i) young offenders' institution, (ii) secure training centre and (c) secure children's home in each year since May 2010.

The Youth Justice Board (YJB) works with a range of partners to address the over-representation of Black and Minority Ethnic young people in the criminal justice system.

Table 1 shows the monthly average population of Black and Minority Ethnic young people aged under 18 years old in custody in each Secure Children's Home, Secure Training Centre and Young Offender Institution in each year since April 2010.

Table 1: Monthly average population of Black and Minority Ethnic young people aged under 18 in custody by establishment

Table 2 shows the proportions of Black and Minority Ethnic young people aged under 18 years old in custody in each secure children's home, secure training centre and young offender institution in each year since April 2010.

Table 2: Proportion of Black and Minority Ethnic young people aged under 18 in custody by establishment

Average population figures are based on 12 monthly snapshots of the custodial population in the youth secure estate, taken on the last Friday of the month or first Friday of the following month, depending on which is nearer to the actual month end.

The average figures are rounded to the nearest whole number. This means that if the average number of young people in an establishment is less than 0.5, the number is rounded to zero. The proportion figures in Table 2 are based on the unrounded averages and so may be greater than zero despite a rounded average of zero. For example, Beechfield SCH had only one young person appear in one monthly snapshot in 2010/11, which gives an average annual population of 0.08 (1 divided by 12), and is rounded to 0 in Table 1. As this was a Black and Minority Ethnic young person, the proportion figure in Table 2 shows 100% of all young people in Beechfield in 2010/11 were Black and Minority Ethnic.

Data for 2009/10 to 2011/12 comes from the YJB's Secure Accommodation Clearing House System (SACHS) database. Data from April 2012 comes from the YJB's eAsset database which replaced the SACHS database for placing young people in custody.

The following establishments have been decommissioned during this period: Atkinson Unit and Kyloe House in April 2010 (though the YJB spot purchased beds from them on occasion after this date), Ashfield in July 2013, Castington in August 2010, Downview in August 2013, Eastwood Park in July 2013, Foston Hall in January 2011, Huntercombe in August 2010, New Hall in July 2013, Stoke Heath in July 2011, Warren Hill in February 2014.

These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing and can be subject to change over time.