Whilst the number of children in youth custody across all ethnicities has reduced (by 73%) between 2010–11 and 2020–21, the proportion from ethnic minority backgrounds has increased (from 32% to 53%).54 Furthermore, the Ministry of Justice drew our attention to a recent HMI Probation report found that young black boys, aged 10–17, are 2.8 times more likely to enter the youth justice system than would be expected given the proportion of black children this age in the general population.55 The Home Office and Ministry of Justice could not fully explain these disparities. In response to our questions about what is driving the disparity, the Ministry of Justice told us that there are a range of complex “societal factors” at play. However, it acknowledged that some interventions may be contributing to disparities, such as the police’s use of stop and search (for which the Home Office take a policy lead) and decisions about whether to remand someone in custody ahead of their trial (an area of Ministry of Justice policy responsibility). For example, the Ministry of Justice told us that the data shows that a high proportion of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children are remanded into custody (sent to a secure centre for young people until their trial).56 The NAO report included data on the rates of juvenile first-time entrants to the criminal justice system. The Ministry of Justice were not able to explain the disparities and said it would write to us with any information it has to explain the disparity.57