Part 8: Youth justice Section 157: Youth remand
Section 157 amends the provisions of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 ("the 2012 Act"), which provide the legislative framework governing bail hearings and the tests courts must satisfy to remand a child or young person (i.e. aged under 18) to Youth Detention accommodation. The relevant sections are sections 91, 98, 99 and 102 and equivalent provisions for extradition proceedings under sections 100 and 101.
	Subsection (2) amends section 91 of the 2012 Act to introduce a statutory duty for the court to consider the welfare and best interests of the child when applying the sets of conditions that must be met in order to remand a child to custody. This reflects the welfare principle set out in section 44 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 and promotes a ‘child first’ approach to decision-making.
	Subsection (3) amends section 98 of the 2012 Act, the ‘first set of conditions’ so that when assessing whether the likelihood that the alleged offence would result in a custodial sentence, the court must be of the opinion that the prospect of custody is ‘very likely’. This will ensure that the mere possibility of a custodial sentence is not enough to warrant secure remand.
	Subsection (3) also adds the sentencing condition to the first set of conditions under section 98 of the 2012 Act, where it only applies to section 99 under current provisions.
	Subsections (3)(c) and (4)(d) amend the "necessity condition" which must be satisfied under both section 98 and 99 of the 2012 Act. The necessity condition is intended to ensure that, where the other conditions are satisfied, a child can only be remanded to custody in order to protect the public from death or serious harm or prevent the commission of an imprisonable offence. These sections introduce an additional consideration, which is that for the necessity condition to be satisfied, the court must be of the opinion that no alternative is available to manage the risk posed by the child safely in the community.
	Subsection (4) amends the "history condition" so that only a recent and significant history of breaching bail, or offending while on bail, should justify custodial remand.
	Subsections (5) and (6) make the corresponding amendments to sections 100 and 101 which provide the first and second set of conditions for extradition proceedings.
	Subsection (7) amends section 102 (remands to youth detention accommodation) to introduce a duty for the court to provide the reasons for the decision to remand the child to Youth Detention Accommodation and to require the court to state that they have considered the welfare of the child and remand to local authority accommodation in making their decision.