Remands
Section 91: Remands of children otherwise than on bail
503.Section 91 is concerned with a child who has not been granted bail and who either (a) has been charged with or convicted of an offence and is awaiting trial or sentence or (b) is the subject of extradition proceedings.
504.Subsection (3) provides that the court must remand that child to local authority accommodation unless one of the sets of conditions set out in sections 98 to 101 is met. (Sections 98 and 99 provide two sets of conditions, one set of which must be met for a child charged with or convicted of a criminal offence; and sections 100 and 101 provide equivalent alternate sets of conditions for children concerned in extradition proceedings).
505.Subsection (6) defines a child as a person under the age of 18. This has the effect of applying these provisions to all under 18s who are before the court in the above circumstances. Currently, 17 year olds are remanded to prison either under section 27 of the Criminal Justice Act 1948 in the case of those charged with or convicted of an offence or the Extradition Act 2003 for those involved in extradition proceedings.
Section 92: Remands to local authority accommodation
506.Section 92 sets out the practical effect of and arrangements for a remand to local authority accommodation.
507.Subsection (4) provides that a local authority designated by the court must receive the child and provide or arrange suitable accommodation for them. The powers and duties of a local authority to place a child that is remanded under this section are set out in section 22C of the Children Act 1989.
Section 93: Conditions etc on remands to local authority accommodation
508.Subsection (1) of section 93 provides that a court may impose conditions on a child who it has remanded to local authority accommodation. These conditions are the same as the court may apply to a child who is remanded on bail pursuant to section 3 of the Bail Act 1976. Subsection (3) also provides that the court may impose requirements on the designated local authority to secure compliance with any of the conditions imposed on the child.
509.Subsection (2) additionally allows the court to order that compliance with any requirements imposed under subsection (1) be secured by means of electronic monitoring. In the case of children who are charged with or convicted of an offence the conditions imposed in section 94 must be met. These are same as those which apply to electronic monitoring imposed pursuant to section 3A of the Bail Act 1976. In the case of children concerned in extradition proceedings, the conditions in section 96 must be met.
Section 94: Requirements for electronic monitoring
510.Section 94 applies in cases other than extradition cases and sets out five requirements that must be satisfied before a court may impose electronic monitoring on a child remanded to local authority care pursuant to section 92.
Section 95: Requirements for electronic monitoring: extradition cases
511.Section 95 provides for a modified version of the five requirements in section 94 in respect of children concerned in extradition proceedings. The effect of the requirements is broadly the same as for section 94 but the drafting reflects the fact that the child is subject to extradition proceedings in England and Wales.
Section 96: Further provisions about electronic monitoring
512.Section 96 provides that when imposing a condition of electronic monitoring the court must make a person responsible for the monitoring and that they must be of a description specified by the Secretary of State.
513.Subsection (2) confers a power on the Secretary of State to prescribe by order the description of persons who may be responsible for electronic monitoring, and subsection (3) confers a power to make rules regulating electronic monitoring in general and the functions of the person responsible for carrying out the monitoring in particular. Both the order and the rules must be made by statutory instrument and the rules are subject to the negative resolution procedure in Parliament.
Section 97: Liability to arrest for breaking conditions of remand
514.Section 97 confers a power for a constable to arrest without a warrant a child who the constable has reasonable grounds for suspecting has breached any of the conditions imposed under section 93. It also imposes a duty on the constable to bring the child before a court as soon as reasonably practicable and in any event within 24 hours.
515.If the court determines that the child has broken any of the conditions imposed under the original remand it can remand the child on new conditions or, if it thinks the test for remand to youth detention accommodation is met, remand the child to youth detention accommodation. If it is not satisfied that the conditions have been breached then the child must be remanded to local authority accommodation, again subject to the same conditions as those originally imposed.
