§ Mr. MaclennanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many young people aged below 18 years were held in youth custody in 1990.
§ Mrs. RumboldOn 30 June 1990 about 970 sentenced young offenders aged under 18 were held in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales. Of these, about 820 543W had been sentenced to detention in a young offender institution, 140 to detention under the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933 and about 10 to detention in default of payment of a fine, compensation order or costs.
§ Mr. MaclennanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list in theOfficial Report the number of people who were sentenced to youth custody in 1988, 1989 and 1990; and how many (a) came from a one-parent family, (b) came from a home where there had been a marriage break-up, or (c) had no parents.
§ Mr. John PattenIn England and Wales in 1988, a total of 24,118 offenders were detained in a young offender institution. The figure fell to 19,092 in 1989. Data for 1990 are not yet available. This information is published annually in volumes 1 and 2 of the "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales, Supplementary Tables", copies of which are in the Library. Information is not collected centrally on the family background of these offenders.
§ Mr. MaclennanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the average weekly cost of keeping a person in youth custody.
§ Mrs. RumboldThe average weekly cost of keeping a person in an open and closed youth establishment in 1989–90, the latest year for which information is available, was £459 and £346 respectively.