Use of restraints on children and young people

That this House believes that no child or young person who has not committed nor been suspected of committing a crime be placed in handcuffs or subject to similar forms of restraint; notes with concern the prevalence of handcuffs being used against vulnerable children in the UK’s care system by independent providers of secure transportation; understands that there is currently no legal obligation for these providers to report the use of handcuffs to the appropriate authorities and that this prevents an empirical understanding of how often and why handcuffs are being used; recognises the negative impact of such practices on a child’s physical and mental health and wellbeing; believes that further action to protect the health and wellbeing of these vulnerable children is needed through early intervention such as mentoring; and calls on the Government to implement the recommendations of the Hope instead of Handcuffs campaign to ban the handcuffing of innocent children and young people in the UK’s care system unless there is a considerable risk of the child harming themselves or others and mandate that all organisations involved in the secure transportation of children be legally obliged to report any instances of the handcuffing of these children.