Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how local authorities and police forces share information on children aged between 16 and 18 while respecting confidentiality.

Section 115 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 confers a power for the disclosure of information between the police and relevant local authority for the purpose of preventing offending and community safety.

Every area should have a local Data Sharing Agreement in place, and the Youth Justice police officer should act as the two-way conduit of intelligence sharing between the Youth Offending Team and the local police. Information sharing is done in the same way for all children (aged between 10-17 years old) regardless of age.