To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what budgetary savings have been delivered by each planned reduction in the size of the youth secure estate over the last 10 years.

The youth custodial population has fallen significantly in recent years and this has allowed considerable excess capacity to be decommissioned.

The Youth Justice Board (YJB) is responsible for purchasing places in the youth custodial estate. Between 2004-05 and 2006-07 there was a small increase in the size of the youth estate. Capacity of the estate then remained constant until 2009-10 when the YJB began a programme of decommissioning in response to falls in demand for youth custody. The budgetary savings to the YJB delivered by each planned reduction in the youth secure estate since 2009-10 total £76 million.