§ Mrs. Wiseasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list in 474W the Official Report the cost of keeping a young person in (a) a community school, (b) detention centre, and (c) borstal, for a one-year period; and if he has any statistics relating to subsequent reconviction rates of young people in each of these categories.
§ Mr. JohnIn 1975–76, the last financial year for which full details are available, the average annual cost of keeping a young male in a borstal or young prisoners centre was £4,461 and in a detention centre £4,381. The cost of keeping girls in borstals cannot be distinguished from costs in other female establishments where the average cost was £5,265. Reconviction rates for persons released from borstals and detention centres in the years 1970 to 1973 appear in Tables 8.4 and 8.6 of Cmnd. 6884.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Services tells me that separate information is not available about the cost of community homes with education on the premises—formerly approved schools. The average cost of maintaining a child in all types of community homes in England and Wales in 1975–76 was £3,545. This figure excludes administration costs and takes no account of parental contribution. There are no comparable national statistics of reconviction rates for community homes with education.