To ask Her Majesty's Government how they intend to respond to the Local Government Association's request for an urgent action plan to improve conditions in youth custody provision, following the conclusion by HM Inspectorate of Prisons, set out in the 2016–17 Annual Report of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, that "there was not a single establishment…inspected…in which it was safe to hold children and young people."
Answered on
17 October 2017
The Government is determined to improve safety and reduce the risk of serious incidents, violence and self-harm in youth custody. We acknowledge that levels of violence within the youth estate are too high and outcomes for children and young people in custody are not good enough. Following the Government’s response to Charlie Taylor’s review of the youth justice system, a new Youth Custody Service (YCS) has been created to focus on performance in the Youth Secure Estate and a Youth Justice Reform Programme has been established.
The aims of the programme are to improve standards by making youth custody a place of safety, both for young people and those who work there; and to improve the life chances of young people in custody. We are investing £64 million to entrench the reform of youth custody. We will boost the number of frontline staff in youth offender institutions by 20% – 120 additional recruits, including newly trained specialist youth justice workers, equipped to tackle the needs of young offenders. We are also developing two new Secure Schools.