Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people in youth detention centres with (a) disabilities and (b) registered disabled.

All establishments within the youth estate in England and Wales must adhere to the Equality Act 2010, including the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled persons. Support is also provided for all children and young people with a disability in accordance with the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Data is not currently available on disability for the entire population in youth custody. From April 2021 the Youth Custody Service (YCS) has centrally collected information on all protected characteristics of children and young people held under their care. This includes details on the presence and type of disabilities and long-term health conditions. This information is reviewed and updated when a child or young person is placed into a youth secure estate establishment. As this information was not collected for those admitted prior to April 2021 reliable figures for the whole estate are not available.

Internal information, which is subject to change, is available from April to October 2021. This shows that during that time there have been 581 new admissions to the youth estate. As of 24 November, 389 have responded and ten are recorded as having a disability. The number who are recorded as having a hearing impairment is five or fewer and is not being published to prevent disclosure in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 1998. This information relates purely to admission during the period and may include individuals who have since left the secure estate.