The use of restraint in secure training centres : eleventh report of session 2007-08, report, together with formal minutes, and oral and written evidence

The Secure Training Centre (Amendment) Rules (SI 2007/1709, ISBN 9780110773742) which amended the Secure Training Centre Rules 1998 (SI 1998/472, ISBN 9780110656083) came into force in July 2007 without Parliamentary debate.

They amend the existing Rules to permit Secure Training Centres (STCs) to use force against detained children and young people to "ensure good order and discipline".The Amendment Rules were criticised and the Government promised a review.

A judicial review of the Amendment Rules by the High Court, held that they represented a "significant change in policy".

The Joint Committee on Human Rights considers in this report their compatibility with the UK's human rights obligations.

Restraint allowed in STCs is known as Physical Control in Care (PCC) and comprises a range of restraint holds and so called "distraction techniques".

The Minister of Justice, for the Department of Justice, states the Government does not sanction violence against children, but the Committee considers that this is the effect of current UK law.In the Committee's view the Amendment Rules have created more confusion and have widened the scope for the use of force in an unacceptable manner. It recommends new Amendment Rules to make clear that physical restraint is not permissable for the purposes of good order and discipline and recommends careful monitoring of the effect of the Amendment Rules with regular reports by Government to Parliament on the number of restraint incidents.

The Committee does welcome the creation of the Youth Justice Unit along with the re-establishment of the Medical Review Panel and also welcomes the Government's suspension of two restaint techniques in December 2007.

The Committee further recommends the abolition of all distraction techniques and suggests a series of measures to ensure compliance by STCs with human rights standards as well as the publication of the PCC training manual in full and disseminated to all staff who use restraint.