HC Deb 19 January 1998 vol 304 cc385-6W
Mr. Baker

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to end the practice of holding males aged under 18 years in adult prisons while on remand. [23726]

Mr. Michael

The Government are concerned about the continued remand of boys to prison which is a long-standing issue which the last Government failed to resolve. This Government's policy is to move to a situation where it is no longer necessary to remand 15 and 16 years olds to prison. I set out the background in detail in my answer to the hon. Member for Hertsmere (Mr. Clappison) on 12 January 1998,Official Report, columns 64–66. We have reviewed this whole difficult area and decided that the priority is to give the courts the right range of powers to remand juveniles to secure accommodation, and there are provisions within the Crime and Disorder Bill to achieve this. The proposals do not apply to 17 year olds who are treated as adults for remand purposes. There is no proposal to change the remand arrangements for this older age group.

We hope that the outcome of the current review of the secure juvenile estate and the work which the Prison Service is currently doing will enable us to end the practice of detaining juveniles with adults.