Justice Secretary David Lammy is to set out plans to cut the number of children held in jail while awaiting trial by a quarter, in what he describes as a bid to break the cycle of crime and punishment that has left young people from ethnic minority backgrounds disproportionately locked up.
The overhaul, contained in a youth justice white paper published on Monday, will also include a consultation on ending lifelong criminal records for under-18s, creating a new offence of child criminal exploitation and pressing ahead with pilots of “youth intervention courts” designed to address the root causes of offending rather than simply locking children away.
Reducing the use of custodial remand
Lammy has promised to cut the use of custodial remand for under-18s by 25% by the end of the current parliament, with a long-term goal of ending the practice altogether. The move comes after Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures revealed that 62% of children remanded to youth detention accommodation in the year ending March 2025 did not subsequently receive a custodial sentence, meaning many were unnecessarily exposed to the harms of custody. The same proportion – 62% – was recorded for 2023-24. According to the MoJ, 76% of children remanded to custody were held for violence against the person offences, and 17-year-olds account for around half of the average monthly remand population.
Alongside the remand reduction, Lammy will allow judges to offer a wider range of community sentences. Officials say the two measures together are expected to reduce the overall number of young people in prison by 20%. At present, the average number of children in custody at any one time in the year to March 2025 fell to around 420 – the lowest on record – down from 560 in 2020-21. However, ethnic minority groups now make up 53% of the youth custody population. Black children remain over‑represented, and the proportion of Mixed ethnicity children in custody has nearly doubled over the past decade, from around 10% to 18%.
Lammy’s personal motivation
The justice secretary has been open about the driving force behind the reforms. “Growing up in Tottenham in the 1980s, my biggest fear was ending up in prison,” he said. “You saw it happen slowly at first. People missed school, got into petty trouble, started hanging around with the wrong crowd. No one stepped in to pull them back. For us, going to jail didn’t feel shocking or distant. It felt almost inevitable.”
Lammy, who was awarded a scholarship to a state boarding school, said he often thinks “there but for the grace of God go I”. He stressed that prison can do lasting damage to children’s lives, making them more likely to offend in future. “For the most serious offences, custody will always be necessary to protect the public – that will never change,” he said. “But for many children, even a short spell inside can disrupt the most formative years of their lives and sometimes expose them to more violence and criminal influence.”
His involvement in youth justice reform dates back to the independent Lammy Review in 2017, which highlighted significant racial bias in the criminal justice system. That review found that while Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups made up 14% of the population, they constituted 25% of adult prisoners and had accounted for over 40% of young people in custody by 2016. The government accepted all 11 recommendations concerning prisons, but outcomes for BAME prisoners have reportedly failed to improve significantly.
Parental responsibility
As part of the white paper, the MoJ will consult on fining parents – and potentially sending them to jail – if they fail to keep their children away from crime. The consultation will examine strengthening and expanding Parenting Orders, which can compel parents to address their child’s behaviour or face penalties. The use of such orders has declined dramatically, from more than 1,000 in 2009-10 to just 33 in 2022-23. The move is partly in response to the inquiry into the Southport stabbings.
Youth intervention courts and tailored plans
At the heart of Lammy’s reforms is the piloting of “youth intervention courts”, a form of problem-solving court where judges and support workers devise individually tailored plans for young people. These plans can include specific health or educational requirements, alongside close monitoring to prevent repeat offending. The approach aims to address the root causes of criminal behaviour rather than simply imposing punishment. The white paper notes that only 7% of children who completed the government’s existing ‘Turnaround’ early intervention programme went on to receive a sentence or caution, as of December 2024. To expand such work, the MoJ will invest an additional £15.4 million per year in the Turnaround programme, helping an estimated 12,000 children at risk of entering the youth justice system over the next three years.
The proposed courts are part of a wider shift away from custody. Alongside the remand cuts, Lammy is creating a new standalone offence of child criminal exploitation (CCE), carrying a maximum penalty of ten years’ imprisonment. The offence targets adults who engage in conduct with a child intending to cause them to commit a criminal offence, filling a gap in the law – currently there is no statutory definition of CCE in England. In the year ending March 2024, there were 15,750 episodes of need where child criminal exploitation was identified as a concern.
Lammy is also launching a consultation on whether children should have to disclose criminal records for the rest of their lives – something he criticised in his 2017 review. “We will review how offences committed in childhood appear on criminal records, because a mistake made at 13 should not become a life sentence of closed doors and lost chances,” he said. Currently, records of cautions and convictions are stored on the Police National Computer until an individual is 100 years old. The white paper argues that this anchors children to their past, inhibiting access to education, employment, travel and housing.
The scale of the challenge is underlined by MoJ figures showing that 80% of prolific offenders committed their first crime as a child, while two-thirds of those released from custody reoffend within a year. The proven reoffending rate for children in the year ending March 2025 was 31.8% – the first fall after two consecutive annual increases, though rates for young offenders aged 15-17 (32.6%) and 18-20 (36.2%) remain the highest in the country. Meanwhile, the number of first-time entrants to the youth justice system has fallen to a record low of 8,100 in the year to March 2025, and stop-and-searches of children decreased by 7%, with nearly three-quarters (74%) resulting in no further action.
The Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, welcomed the reforms. “I have consistently been clear about the need to reform the youth justice system,” she said. “We must build an approach that keeps children safe, diverts them from crime wherever possible and prioritises meaningful behaviour change.” She has previously called for the closure of all Young Offender Institutions, arguing that custody is often used as a “waiting room” for children in need of care and support.
