An attempt to extend the protections of the Children Act 1989 to children in prison has been delayed by the High Court to allow social care agencies the chance to make submissions.
The Howard League for Penal Reform, which brought the case, argued that children in prison are routinely treated in ways that in other circumstances would trigger a child protection investigation for abuse.
Mr Justice Crane decided that the case should be put back to allow agencies, including the Department of Health, to contribute their views on a matter that he said would have a “profound effect” on their functions and resources.
Meanwhile, assault rates in young offenders institutions are still too high, says a report from the Prison Reform Trust.
The highest assault rates, in prisons as a whole, were in male juvenile establishments with 60.5 per cent of prisoners and staff having been assaulted, followed by male closed young offenders institutions at 30.2 per cent. The greatest proportion of assaults was at Ashfield, a male juvenile prison in Bristol, which had an assault rate of 74.1 per cent, and the second highest rate of 69 per cent was at Huntercombe, a juvenile establishment in Oxfordshire.