AYJ Director presents evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights on implications of the Police, Crime, Sentencing, & Courts Bill

As part of their legislative scrutiny of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill, the Joint Committee on Human Rights heard evidence on Wednesday 30th June about the sections of the Bill relating to youth justice.

AYJ Director, Pippa Goodfellow, gave oral evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights on the children’s rights implications the Bill, alongside Dr Laura Janes, Legal Director of The Howard League for Penal Reform and Danielle Manson, Barrister at Garden Court Chambers.

In her responses, Pippa covered key issues such as:

• the welcome reduction in the number of children in custody, noting the disproportionate nature of this reduction as it mainly benefited white children, meaning that more than half of children in custody are now from ethnic minorities.

• The continuing harms caused to children in custody despite this reduction in numbers. were also underlined as a cause for great concern - the rapid decommissioning of custodial places has not been met with more appropriate forms of provision for children.

• the evidence that Black and ethnic minority children are already more likely to receive custodial sentences than community sentences, and the PCSC Bill threatens to entrench this even further.

• the continued overuse of custodial remand for children - with around 40% of children in custody being on remand and 2/3 going on to receive a community sentence or be acquitted. The changes to remand outlined in the PCSC Bill are welcome but they don't go far enough. With every decision that risks depriving a child of their liberty, one of the primary considerations should be whether the risk posed by the child is so significant that it can’t be effectively managed within the community.

• incorporating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into domestic law would create a mechanism for the state to be held to account when children’s rights are not being upheld and discriminated against, and would also send a positive message to children.

Watch the full evidence session here.

The Committee has also now published the AYJ’s written evidence submission on the PCSC Bill, which focuses on the ways in which the Bill: fails to treat children as children, will increase the incarceration of children, and will exacerbate racial disparities.

Our #AYJEXPLAINS guide to the PCSC Bill's impact on children’s rights can also be found here.