To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of incidents in which restraint was used in each secure training centre in each year since 2010.

Restraint must only be used against young people as a last resort where it is absolutely necessary to do so and where no other form of intervention is possible or appropriate.

Significant improvements have been made to restraint practice in recent years, including the introduction of the ‘Minimising and Managing Physical Restraint’ (MMPR) system. The system was independently assessed by an expert panel and is in the final stages of being rolled out across all Secure Training Centres (STCs) and under-18 Young Offender Institutions (YOIs).

Statistics on the number of incidents of Restrictive Physical Intervention (RPI) are provided by secure estate sector in Chapter 8 of the Youth Justice Statistics publication, published annually in January: (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/youth-justice-annual-statistics-2013-to-2014).

The number of incidents of RPI in STCs fell between 2010 and 2014. Table 1 shows the total number of incidents of RPI recorded in each STC since January 2010.

Table 1: Number of incidents of RPI in STCs, 2010 to 2014

1. Restrictive Physical Intervention is defined as any occasion when force is used with the intention of overpowering or to overpower a young person. Over power is defined as “restricting movement or mobility”.

This data is taken from monthly returns supplied to the YJB by custodial establishments. Figures from April 2014 onwards are provisional and will be finalised when the 2014/15 Youth Justice Statistics are published in 2016.

These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing and can be subject to change over time.