Violence against offenders blasted

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There is "no excuse" for the law allowing brutal restraint tactics to be employed against offenders as young as 12, according to the Joint Human Rights Committee.

Changes to guidance for staff, introduced after the death of a 14-year-old, have also exacerbated the situation by effectively giving them carte blanche to enforce discipline with violence, MPs said.

The damning criticisms came in a report by the committee into privately-run detention facilities for those aged between 12 and 17.

Chairman Andrew Dismore said he did not underestimate the challenges facing employees at Secure Training Centres (STCs).

"But we must remember that trainees are children in the care of the state, which has a duty to ensure that all detained young people and STC staff are protected from abuse or violence," he said.

"What is in effect state sanctioned infliction of pain against children to ensure 'good order and discipline' should not continue."

Methods currently permitted include holds and so-called "distraction techniques", where sharp bursts of pain are inflicted to the nose, rib or thumb.

Ministers have insisted that restraints are "designed to avoid, as far as possible, the use of techniques that involve pain", and "the Government does not sanction violence against children".

However, the Parliamentarians conclude that "this is the effect of current UK law", and highlight statements from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child that restraint "should not involve the deliberate infliction of pain as a form of control".