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26 Nov 2007 : Column 100W—continued

There are also a number of young offender units within adult establishments. All women young offenders are held in accommodation designated for young offenders within adult women's prisons.

Young Offenders

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) 15, (b) 16 and (c) 17 year olds were on remand in each year since 1997 in each police authority area; and how many went on to serve a prison sentence. [166969]

Maria Eagle: The following table shows the number of 15, 16 and 17-year-olds held on remand in all prison establishments in England and Wales since 1997.

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	As at 30 June each year
Males and Females	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Aged 15
Untried	46	48	29	35	41	33	29	37	38	32	38
Convicted unsentenced	28	38	15	16	7	26	8	15	14	27	25
Aged 16
Untried	114	100	106	82	69	99	81	74	78	98	98
Convicted unsentenced	57	83	49	32	29	55	40	44	43	36	35
Aged 17
Untried	308	294	298	255	195	188	218	221	221	250	239
Convicted unsentenced	253	214	215	154	117	117	96	119	92	130	109

The figures are not broken down by area because the numbers are small and the accuracy at this level of detail cannot be guaranteed.

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.

Data are not held centrally to identify how many of the 15-17 year olds went on to serve a prison sentence. However, data collected from the courts show that 50 per cent. of those remanded in custody go on to receive a custodial sentence (data published in table 4.8 of Criminal Statistics 2005, and website www.homeoffice.gov.uk)

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many re-convictions of young offenders there were in each police authority area in each year since 1997; and what percentage this represents of all young offenders in each year since 1997. [167019]

Mr. Hanson: Information on re-offending by juveniles by police force area is not currently available. Figures for re-offending by juveniles have been published for 2000, 2004 and 2005 for England and Wales, but the data sets used do not enable analysis by police force area.

Prior to 2000, a different data source and methodology was used to calculate figures on juvenile re-offending, and these earlier figures are not comparable This is discussed in more detail and the most recent figures on juvenile re-offending can be found in “Re-offending of juveniles: results from the 2005 cohort” which can be found online at

http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/reoffending-juveniles2005.pdf

Young Offenders: Sentencing

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many ( a) 15, (b) 16 and (c) 17-year-olds were given custodial sentences in each police force area in each year since 1997; and what average length of sentence was given to each group in each year. [167103]

Mr. Hanson: The information requested is contained in the following tables.

Figures for 2006 will be published in mid-December.

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Table 1: Persons aged 15 to 17 sentenced to immediate custody by police force area and age, England and Wales, 1997 to 2005
Number of persons
	1997			1998			1999
Police force area	Age 15	Age 16	Age 17	Age 15	Age 16	Age 17	Age 15	Age 16	Age 17
Avon and Somerset	11	30	55	9	26	48	2	21	45
Bedfordshire	23	30	55	21	63	47	23	41	52
Cambridgeshire	13	21	45	8	25	44	15	28	48
Cheshire	13	41	58	18	29	60	21	27	63
City of London	—	—	2	—	—	—	—	—	—
Cleveland	24	50	73	19	30	77	17	30	66
Cumbria	15	23	28	10	17	45	16	16	38
Derbyshire	19	34	46	23	35	56	26	44	79
Devon and Cornwall	19	37	49	7	31	66	13	17	59
Dorset	4	12	28	5	13	32	15	16	30
Durham	18	36	41	20	31	67	30	54	67
Essex	30	65	91	19	62	112	26	37	83
Gloucestershire	2	4	43	7	4	26	3	10	24
Greater Manchester	90	182	316	94	182	290	117	185	280
Hampshire	23	33	85	22	66	73	41	93	120
Hertfordshire	9	14	37	6	13	26	5	18	34
Humberside	20	52	77	33	46	87	20	57	91
Kent	27	67	74	31	78	105	24	45	77
Lancashire	30	76	120	31	65	113	27	78	104
Leicestershire	56	72	100	26	63	110	28	69	95
Lincolnshire	—	10	46	6	9	29	10	4	30
Merseyside	34	64	112	24	67	115	30	74	83
Metropolitan Police	174	311	544	166	316	494	151	329	513
Norfolk	4	5	20	7	9	23	7	20	29
North Yorkshire	12	28	36	10	23	38	15	22	56
Northamptonshire	2	11	38	8	25	39	8	29	48
Northumbria	51	121	141	47	105	171	41	102	190
Nottinghamshire	42	72	125	37	76	113	43	64	120
South Yorkshire	53	67	133	41	59	124	20	56	110
Staffordshire	16	26	69	17	32	59	17	45	71
Suffolk	3	16	23	8	11	28	7	23	45
Surrey	7	17	16	6	16	19	—	10	17
Sussex	9	43	63	10	56	70	14	28	63
Thames Valley	8	43	80	14	47	73	12	38	83
Warwickshire	9	12	23	3	9	19	11	15	24
West Mercia	12	28	50	8	37	50	12	33	70
West Midlands	97	200	332	94	208	335	103	220	358
West Yorkshire	61	98	190	58	105	183	79	131	236
Wiltshire	1	14	20	9	12	18	5	19	25
Dyfed-Powys	3	9	19	5	3	16	3	3	24
Gwent	3	17	39	19	29	53	18	32	46
North Wales	6	11	31	7	13	31	14	19	36
South Wales	40	68	117	59	96	128	55	106	153
England and Wales	1,093	2,170	3,690	1,072	2,242	3,712	1,144	2,308	3,885

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