To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many children aged 10 to 17 years were given a custodial sentence after pleading guilty to a first time offence in each of the last three years. (303452)

The following table shows the number of offenders under 18, with no previous reprimand, warning or conviction, who received an immediate custodial sentence in the three years 2006-07 to 2008-09. Data on guilty pleas in relation to first offenders are not available. These figures have been drawn from the police’s administrative IT system, the police national computer, which, as with any large scale recording system, is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The figures are provisional and subject to change as more information is recorded by the police.