Remand in Custody: Children

(asked on 13th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an estimate of the proportion of unconvicted children held on remand during 2019 who were denied bail on the basis of (a) the child’s own welfare or protection, (b) the child already being in custody serving a sentence, (c) there being insufficient information relating to the case, (d) the child already having been on bail during the proceedings and having been arrested for breach of those bail conditions, and (e) it being impracticable to complete enquiries or make a report unless the child is in custody.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 22nd May 2020

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes the number of unconvicted children on remand, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2018. Figures for 2019 will be published later in May.

The Ministry of Justice does not centrally hold data on the reasons why children are held on remand or why they were refused bail.

The decision to grant or refuse bail is a matter for our independent judiciary. There is a general presumption to bail in criminal proceedings, but there are exceptions to this. The remand framework ensures the court considers all options, including bail and community remand options, before a remand into custody would be considered.

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.

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