Select committee: Justice Committee
Recommendation 13
12th Report: Children and Young People in Custody (Part 1): Entry into the youth justice system
Published 12 Nov 2020
Paragraph 83
Addressed to Ministry of Justice
Justice Committee Children and young people in custody All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
BAME children are disproportionately remanded to custody and some of the children remanded to custody, will not then go on to receive a custodial sentence. The Youth Justice Board should update the Committee on the findings of their commissioned research. We agree with Transform Justice, that the disproportionate use of remand has not satisfactorily been explained, and we recommend that the Ministry of Justice provide an explanation of why the levels of BAME children being remanded to custody are disproportionately high. This explanation should include comparative data on the numbers of BAME children and other pleading guilty and differences in the types of offences of which BAME children and others are accused, in particular where they are likely to result in remand in custody. The Ministry should also set out the steps it is taking to prevent unconscious bias in decision-making.
From: Justice Committee, 12th Report: Children and Young People in Custody (Part 1): Entry into the youth justice system (HC 306), paragraph 83, 12 November 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 10 February 2021 (deadline 12 January 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and agrees that "more can be done" on multi-agency working and data on diversion, but declines to review the age of criminal responsibility or sentencing options for first-time offenders.
- On data and evaluation, it agrees "more can be done to collect data on diversion schemes"; the YJB has collected data on Community Resolutions and other informal outcomes since April 2020 and "will explore publishing" it once a full year of sufficient quality data is collated.
- It states it "does not have any current plans to either review or change the age of criminal responsibility", saying children aged 10 and over can tell bad behaviour from serious wrongdoing and that age 10 allows early intervention.
- On first-time offenders pleading guilty, it states it does "not consider that there is evidence to warrant a review of sentencing options", citing Referral Orders as an effective tool.
- On remand, it says a review of custodial remand for children is under way, with publication of the final report "now planned for spring 2021", and it accepts disproportionality in the system is a concern.