§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many regions sentenced no 14-year-olds to penal custody in the last year for which information is available.
§ Mr. John PattenThe central records available to me for 1986, which may be incomplete, show no custodial 213W sentences imposed on males aged 14 by the courts in four of the 43 police force areas in England and Wales: City of London, Gloucestershire, Suffolk and Warwickshire. Custodial penalties are not available for female offenders aged 14.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has about the subsequent criminal behaviour of 14-year-olds who have been sentenced to penal custody over the past 10 years.
§ Mr. John PattenThe readily available information relates to detention centre trainees aged 14 to 16 reconvicted within two years of discharge from a prison department establishment and is published in table 8.8 of "Prison Statistics, England and Wales, 1986" (Cm. 210), copies of which are in the Library. Information specific to 14-year-olds could be provided only at disproportionate cost.