The proportion of young people held on remand in custody has remained relatively stable over the past five years. The decision to remand a young person in custody remains a matter for the courts.
The following table (based on data supplied by the Youth Justice Board) shows the number of young people remanded to custody at the end of June in the years 2003-08 and the percentage of the overall under-18 custodial population this represented.
Number of young people remanded to custody1 Percentage of under-18 custodial population 2003 559 19.9 2004 587 21.6 2005 565 20.3 2006 648 22.2 2007 607 20.9 2008 636 20.6 1 Young people remanded to custody on the last Friday of June 2003-08.