HC Deb 16 March 1936 vol 310 cc37-8
86. Mr. GARDNER

asked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that a large number of children and young persons who have been committed to approved schools under the Juvenile Delinquency Acts cannot he found accommodation in such schools; that delinquents, after being committed, have waited in one remand home for months; and that the day-to-day conditions prevailing in remand homes make any planned courses of special remedial education impossible; and whether he can inform the House of any steps he is taking to end this congestion which hinders and nullifies the intentions of Parliament?

The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd)

As the answer is long, I propose, with the hon. Member's permission, to circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.

Following is the answer:

My right hon. Friend is aware of the present difficulty in finding accommodation in approved schools and of the consequent extra pressure on remand homes. In the year before the coming into force of the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933, some 1,900 boys and girls were sent to approved schools; the round figures in 1934 rose to 2,800 and in 1935 to 3,100. This increase of some 1,200 in two years in the population of the approved schools largely exceeded the estimates that had been made, and as soon as there was ground to think that the initial increase was likely to continue, steps were taken by the Home Office with a view to the provision of more accommodation, the responsibility for which lies in the last resort on the local authorities. In the two and one-third years since the Act came into force, nine new schools have been opened with accommodation for 586—two by a local authority and six by voluntary bodies. Three existing schools have been extended and the authorised accommodation of every school fixed at the maximum consistent with all reasonable requirements as to health, education and occupation.

In addition local authorities are in process of providing six more schools which, it is hoped, will be opened at intervals in the next 18 months, the first being expected to be ready about June next. It takes about two years in the ordinary way for a local authority to provide and open a new school, but in view of the emergency, in three cases local authorities have either adapted or propose to adapt existing buildings to save time. In addition to this the Roman Catholic community has undertaken to make some addition to the accommodation required for Roman Catholic boys. In the meantime other expedients of a temporary character are being actively considered. Parallel with this increase of accommodation there has been, and is continuing, a development in the remand home accommodation, which again is a responsibility laid on local authorities. The temporary shortage of approved school accommodatin inevitably leads to temporary congestion in the remand homes and I am sure that the remand home authorities are doing their best in difficult conditions. Remand homes are not intended for long detention, and the rules governing them require reasonable arrangements to be made for suitable instruction or work for the inmates.

I can assure the hon. Member that the Home Office has been and is doing its utmost in conjunction with the local authorities and voluntary bodies to cope with the emergency which, it is hoped, will cease to exist in a comparatively short time.