PRT comment: deployment of PAVA in the youth custody estate
The Prison Reform Trust (PRT) has serious reservations regarding the government’s decision announced today (24 April 2025) to authorise the use of PAVA spray in three Young Offender Institutions. PRT is one of the signatures to a joint statement organised by the Alliance for Youth Justice and supported by 37 organisations and individuals working to represent the views of, or deliver services to children, which sets out the significant risks this measure poses to children’s safety and wellbeing.
Commenting on the announcement, Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust, said:
“Data from the adult estate confirms that PAVA is used disproportionately. There is a real risk that this pattern will be repeated with children. Furthermore, we should be very careful of normalising the use of weapons by the state against children.
“The government has promised transparent scrutiny of the use and deployment of PAVA in the three YOIs. But under the proposed arrangements, the youth custody service will effectively be marking its own homework. In order to ensure fully independent scrutiny, the government should commit to undertaking a local authority-led rapid review every time PAVA is deployed or used on the children’s estate.”
