Single separation incidents for young people in custody
Published
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Incidents involving young people in custody.
1. Main facts and figures
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between April 2018 and March 2019, there was a higher rate of single separation incidents (where a young person is locked alone in a room during the day and against their will) among White young people in custody compared with young people from all other ethnic groups combined
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the year ending March 2018 was the only year that White young people had a lower rate of single separation incidents than those from all other ethnic groups combined
Things you need to know
The circumstances are different for each single separation incident. You should avoid simple conclusions or direct comparisons between ethnic groups.
The data counts every single separation incident. It does not show:
- the number of prisoners involved in single separation incidents
- how often they were involved
Young people involved in repeated incidents will be included in the data more than once.
The data does not include young people in custody whose ethnicity wasn’t known.
What the data measures
This data measures the average number of single separation incidents per 100 young people in custody per month. It also shows the average number of incidents per month.
It includes young people being held in:
- secure children’s homes
- secure training centres
'Young people’ are 10 to 17 years old. The data may also include some 18 year olds.
The ethnic categories used in this data
The number of young people involved in restrictive physical interventions was too small to make reliable generalisations about specific ethnic categories.
Because of this, we show data for 2 ethnic groups:
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White – White ethnic groups (including White British and White ethnic minorities)
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Other – all other ethnic minorities
2. By ethnicity over time
| White | Other than White | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | White Number of single separation incidents per 100 young people per month | White Average number of single separation incidents per month | Other than White Number of single separation incidents per 100 young people per month | Other than White Average number of single separation incidents per month |
| 2010/11 | 66.2 | 276.9 | 59.9 | 94.9 |
| 2011/12 | 59.7 | 240.1 | 44.0 | 83.3 |
| 2012/13 | 52.2 | 187.4 | 22.8 | 38.6 |
| 2013/14 | 48.3 | 168.1 | 19.1 | 31.3 |
| 2014/15 | 37.2 | 101.5 | 29.6 | 46.2 |
| 2015/16 | 58.7 | 152.0 | 39.6 | 51.6 |
| 2016/17 | 103.3 | 216.4 | 75.0 | 77.8 |
| 2017/18 | 94.7 | 211.8 | 95.9 | 106.5 |
| 2018/19 | 95.9 | 165.9 | 78.1 | 93.3 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV)
Summary of Single separation incidents for young people in custody By ethnicity over time Summary
The data shows that, on average in the year ending March 2019, there were:
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95.9 single separation incidents per 100 White young people in custody per month
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78.1 per 100 young people from all other ethnic groups combined
It also shows that:
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the year ending March 2018 was the only year in which White young people had a lower rate of single separation incidents than those from all other ethnic groups combined
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the rate of single separation incidents per 100 White people rose from 37.2 to 95.9 between April 2014 to March 2019, following a period of 5 years where the rate had fallen from 66.2 to 37.2
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the rate of single separation incidents per 100 young people from all other ethnic groups combined rose from 19.1 to 95.9 between April 2013 to March 2018, before falling to 78.1 in the year ending March 2019
3. Methodology
Young people in custody report their own ethnicity, which staff then record.
The number of young people in custody is counted at the start of each month. Figures also include new admissions during the month, and then averaged across a 12-month period.
Rounding
Average numbers of incidents and rates per 100 have been rounded to 1 decimal point. All calculations have been made using unrounded figures.
Related publications
Quality and methodology information
Further technical information
Figures published before the release of the 2018 to 2019 youth justice statistics may have been revised since their original publication.
4. Data sources
Source
Youth justice statistics: 2018 to 2019
Type of data
Administrative data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
Ministry of Justice
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The data is used by the government to develop, monitor and evaluate criminal justice policy for young offenders in England and Wales.
5. Download the data
This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, year, value, numerator, denominator