Research high child remand population

The Index has not yet recorded a verbatim government response to this recommendation.

No statement on delivery from Youth Custody Service has been found in the sources searched. This is separate from the response above.

On 23 July 2019, the Ministry of Justice stated that it committed to undertaking further work to consider the use of remand in greater detail. On 14 May 2021, the Ministry of Justice stated that its report in response to this recommendation will be published shortly. The report highlights areas of best practice and makes proposals for improvement, including actions that can be taken in the youth justice system and key partners to reduce the unnecessary use of custodial remand for children. On 23 September 2021, the Minister of State (Ministry of Justice) stated that her officials have concluded the engagement and data collection stages of the review of youth custodial remand; its conclusions and next steps will be published in due course. In addition the Minister stated that the Government is currently taking action to improve the remand framework and process. The proposals in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill will strengthen the tests applied by the courts to ensure children are only remanded to custody as a last resort and will require courts to record their reasons for any custodial remand. On 5 November 2021, the Ministry of Justice confirmed that it had concluded its research and engagement relating to the remand review. The Ministry of Justice stated that it will publish the report including conclusions and next steps in due course. On 26 January 2022, the Ministry of Justice published its review of Custodial Remand for Children . The review highlighted several factors that have impacted the increase in the proportion of children on remand over the past 10 years. It noted the ongoing issue with the number of short remand episodes that do not result in custodial sentences and the “ethnic disproportionality of remand”. The review reiterated the UK government’s stated commitment to to tighten the legal tests courts must satisfy to impose custodial remand on a child, through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill . It also said the Government would strengthen operational delivery and frontline practices, and consider greater use of bail and local authority provision as an alternative to custody. On 28 April 2022, the Bill received Royal Assent and section 157 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 reflects these changes.