Beverley Hughes: Restraint review complete but publication on hold

Children’s minister Beverley Hughes said yesterday that the review of restraint in youth custody has been completed but signalled that it would not be published until the autumn.

In a written parliamentary statement, Hughes said that the review’s chairs, Andrew Williamson and Paul Smallridge, submitted their recommendations to her and prisons minister David Hanson last week.

But she said the review report would not be published until the government had formulated its response, with both issued together by the end of October.

The review was announced last July after the monitoring of restraint in custody was questioned during the inquests into the deaths of Gareth Myatt and Adam Rickwood, both of whom died in secure training centres in 2004.

It was due to report to ministers in April but was delayed because of a “significant gap” in evidence on the use of restraint in secure children’s homes.

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