Statistics published by the Ministry of Justice show that as of April, there were 940 under-18s in youth custody, of which 452 (48.1 per cent) were BAME, while the ethnicity of a further 18 young people (1.9 per cent) was classed as "unknown".
The remaining 470 young people in youth custody - exactly 50 per cent of the total - were classed as "white".
The figures represent a significant increase in the proportion of BAME children in custody since the start of the year. In January the proportion stood at 42.6 per cent.
The figure has been consistently rising over the past decade. In June 2008, the proportion of young people who were black, Asian or from an ethnic minority background stood at 25.3 per cent, compared with 67.1 per cent who were white, with the ethnicity of 7.6 per cent not known.
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