Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Youth Justice Statistics, England and Wales, April 2018 to March 2019, published on 30 January 2020, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies on the use of remand for children of the finding that 66 per cent of children given a remand to youth detention accommodation did not subsequently receive a custodial sentence.

The decision on whether a child should be remanded into custody is a matter for our independent judiciary. We are clear that custody, including custodial remand, should always be used as a last resort for children, and the remand framework ensures the court considers all other options, including bail and remand into local authority accommodation, before remanding a child to custody.

We are currently undertaking work to consider the use of youth custodial remand and in due course we aim to identify options to reduce the numbers of children remanded to custody where appropriate, while ensuring victims and the public are protected.