Sentencing: Children
(asked on 4th July 2019) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what statistics his Department holds on trends in the proportion of people who receive a custodial sentence as a child and then go on to receive a custodial sentence as an adult in each year since 2010.
The proportion of adult offenders given a custodial sentence who had previously received a custodial sentence as a child (2010 to 2018) can be viewed in the table below:
Proportion of adult1 offenders given a custodial sentence2 who had previously received a custodial sentence as a child3, England and Wales4, 2010 to 2018 | |||||||||||||||
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Year | Percentage |
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2010 | 16 |
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2011 | 16 |
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2012 | 17 |
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2013 | 16 |
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2014 | 16 |
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2015 | 15 |
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2016 | 15 |
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2017 | 15 |
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2018 | 15 |
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Source: Ministry of Justice extract of the Police National Computer |
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Notes: |
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1 - Aged 18 or over at time of sentence |
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2 - Immediate custody or suspended sentence for adults, immediate custody only for children (as suspended sentences are not available for under-18s) |
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3 - Aged between 10 and 17 |
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4 - England and Wales includes all 43 police force areas plus the British Transport Police |
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The Government is clear that reoffending rates among children in the criminal justice system are too high. That is why we are working to reform youth custodial provision through the development of secure schools, a new type of secure provision for children, and delivering a wide-ranging change programme in existing youth custody sites including workforce reform, infrastructure changes and a new approach to behaviour management and education and healthcare delivery. Alongside this we are driving forward reform of the criminal records regime, considering how we can improve youth sentencing and working to explain or address disproportionality across the youth justice system.