Context
The number of children and young people in custody has fallen significantly but issues remain with violence, harm, and inadequate conditions. Two secure institutions have closed due to significant harm suffered by children within them.
Question
I thank the Minister for that answer, but the reality is that youth offenders institutions and secure training centres are not safe places for children. Two have closed after children there suffered significant harm. At the two remaining institutions, violent assault on children has reached 70%, resulting in admissions to accident and emergency. Children are locked in their dilapidated cells for up to 22 hours per day. Ofsted described one institution as barely meeting minimum standards of human decency. This is state-supported and state-sanctioned child abuse. Why has he not put a stop to it yet?
Answer from Kit Malthouse
We do acknowledge the problems within the secure estate, although I hope the hon. Lady will also acknowledge the difficulties faced in handling the remaining cohort of young people. We have put in place steps to try to improve the situation—for example, allocating a member of staff to every child to support them with weekly therapeutic interventions. I know that, as one of her first acts on getting the job as Prisons Minister, the Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins), engaged with a number of providers in the secure institutions to outline to them that their performance was not acceptable.
Not addressed: Did not address why conditions have not been stopped despite significant harm suffered by children, only mentioned steps taken to improve situation
How: We Acknowledge The Problems, Difficulties Faced In Handling
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