Young Offender Institutions: Solitary Confinement

(asked on 14th December 2023) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 13 December 2023 to Question 5310 on Young Offender Institutions: Isolation, whether he is taking steps to reduce the number of children and young people who are separated for more than seven days.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 21st December 2023

The information requested relating to children and young people separated for more than seven days who have speech and language difficulties, or are identified as neurodivergent, is not collected centrally and could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.

In the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, 294 separations of more than seven days involved children and young people from ethnic minority backgrounds (excluding children and young people from white minority backgrounds). This equates to 67 percent of the total number of separations of more than seven days (excluding those whose ethnicity is not known).

The Youth Custody Service recognises the potential negative impact of children not being able to mix and interact with their peers, which is why children are only separated as a last resort – to manage the risk to or from other children, and after alternative interventions have been exhausted. Dynamic assessment of risk factors also determines the duration of the separation period. Any separation must be regularly reviewed and may only be in place for as long as is necessary to manage the risk to the child or others. As part of its efforts to ensure that separation is managed as effectively as possible, the Youth Custody Service is reviewing its guidance onMinimising and Managing Use of Separation and Isolation in the Youth Estate Framework, which was published in April 2022.

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