Youth remand continues to fall
Neil Puffett
Thursday, October 8, 2015
The amount of time spent by young people on remand in youth custody has fallen for the second year in a row, government figures show.
Statistics released following a question in the House of Lords show that in 2014/15 under-18s spent a total of 90,128 “bed nights” on remand in youth custody.
This represents a drop of 5.4 per cent on the 2013/14 figure of 95,292 bed nights and a fall of 27.7 per cent on the 2012/13 figure of 124,068 bed nights.
The statistics also show that central government funding for the cost of remand, which is paid by local authorities fell from £19.6m in 2012/13 to £14.3m in 2014/15, a fall of 27.2 per cent.
The average funding for remand per bed night from central government to local authorities came to £158.03 in 2012/13, £154.48 in 2014/15, and £158.43 in 2015/16.
Under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act, financial responsibility for remand transferred from government to councils in April 2013.
The legislation also required that, as of December 2012, all children remanded to custody automatically became classified as looked-after children.
Last week it emerged that more than a third of under-18s in young offender institutions (YOI) are in the care system.
