To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners aged under 18 years were assessed as vulnerable in each year of the last period for which figures are available. (129940)

The table shows how many young people in custody at the end of February in each year since 2003 were assessed by their Youth Offending Team as being vulnerable. The figures were provided by the Youth Justice Board. (It is worth noting that a substantial number of young people in custody may be assessed as vulnerable on two or more occasions so whole year figures may involve some double counting).

Vulnerability is a concept that embraces a wide range of possible factors, including physical and mental health and other special needs and can include specific risks that a young person may pose to others.

Young people assessed as vulnerable by the youth offending team are not all at high risk. And the degree of vulnerability may change in the course of their period in custody. The youth offending team’s assessment is therefore only a starting point. While the most vulnerable young people are accommodated in establishments with high staff-to-trainee ratios, safeguarding arrangements are in place in all establishments.