To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps he plans to take to relieve overcrowding on the young offenders side of Her Majesty's Young Offender Institute, Lancaster Farms in order to allow ex-juvenile offenders to transfer from the juvenile side on reaching their 18th birthday. (226471)

The policy of the Youth Justice Board is that those young people serving a Detention and Training Order aged 18 and over in a Prison Service unit should remain in the young persons' estate to complete the custodial part of their sentence unless there are exceptional personal or population management circumstances which require them to be moved to the young adult estate.

For those sentenced to longer sentences, arrangements are in place to ensure that within a month of their 18th birthday they are relocated to the young adult estate.