Committee recommends abolition of painful restraint techniques on children

On Tuesday the parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights published a report calling for use of restraint techniques involving deliberate physical pain in Secure Training Centres to be abolished 'without delay'.

The report says that British law and practice call into question the Government's commitment to recognising the dignity and worth of children in detention.

The Committee reports that restraint is used on average on ten occasions per child per year and the issue of restraint has arisen in inquests into the deaths of two young people detained in Secure Training Centres.

The Committee recommends new Secure Training Centre rules, following consultation with interested parties and medical advice, to make clear that physical restraint is not permissible for the purposes of good order and discipline. It also recommends careful monitoring of the effect of the rules and that the Government regularly reports to Parliament on the number of restraint incidents.

To read the Committee's report in full, visit: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt200708/jtselect/jtrights/65/65.pdf.