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There has been an 800 per cent increase in the number of under-15s sentenced to custody over the past decade despite the government’s pledge to limit the number of children imprisoned, according to a new report by rehabilitation agency Nacro.

The report accuses ministers of a "rush to custody" and argues that present levels of child imprisonment in England and Wales constitute a continued breach of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which forbids their detention other than when there is no alternative.

It adds that the rise cannot be attributed to an increase in crime with recorded offending by under-18s falling by a fifth between 1992 and 2001.

The government’s Justice for All white paper, published last July, states: "Our juvenile sentencing policy aims to limit the number of young people who are in custodial provision."

Lord Alex Carlile QC, chairperson of Nacro’s committee on children and crime, said: "It is a national disgrace that incarcerating children is viewed as anything but a last resort in response to the problem of juvenile crime."

The report goes on to highlight an over-representation of young black people in the youth justice system, with black children being almost five times more likely to be incarcerated than the general population.

A 90 per cent rise in the level of youth custodial sentencing since 1990 is also identified, with a 400 per cent expansion for girls being described as "particularly alarming".

Nacro believes changes to legislation that impose harsher penalties have been made in response to public anxiety over an epidemic of juvenile offending created by ill-informed reporting in the media.

The report concludes by calling for the "development of a clear perspective" in order to shift policy and practice into understanding the case against child imprisonment.

- A Failure of Justice. Reducing Child Imprisonment from 020 7840 6500