§ Mr. Currieasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many vacancies at present exist for young persons in detention centres in England and Wales; and how many young persons ordered by a court to be detained is such centres in the month of April, 1960, were unable to be accommodated in a detention centre.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerThe four existing detention centres are being used to the limit of their capacity. Others are in course of erection or are planned. As regards the second part of the Question, courts have been asked, in view of the pressure on accommodation, to ascertain whether a vacancy exists before sentencing an offender to detention, and I am grateful for their co-operation in doing so.