Children entering the youth justice system for the first time, England and Wales
Children aged 10 to 17 cautioned or convicted for the first time in England and Wales each year, from the Youth Justice Board's statistics.
Child first time entrants
8,110
2024 · year ending December 2024
Verified against source, 9 November 2026, 15:17 UTCSource: Youth Justice Board for England and Wales. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
11 periods, newest first
| Period | Child first time entrants |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 8,110 |
| 2023 | 8,430 |
| 2022 | 8,561 |
| 2021 | 8,311 |
| 2020 | 9,347 |
| 2019 | 11,527 |
| 2018 | 12,732 |
| 2017 | 15,425 |
| 2016 | 17,001 |
| 2015 | 19,222 |
| 2014 | 21,252 |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Youth Justice Board for England and Wales
- Check it yourself
- https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/youth-justice-statistics
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 9 November 2026, 15:01 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://www.gov.uk/api/content/government/statistics/youth-justice-statistics-2024-to-2025SHA-256 1802117d6d2ea7a5ab46491709e235a9e1ddc71da386d022dd297b93656acbc2 · 4,083 bytes
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6981c8d2e8900d4c455f3730/Youth_Justice_Statistics_2024_to_2025_supplementary_tables.zipSHA-256 50e67581b2ef02250a78db3797533c46fe70b21a08af39e554d69b9f621c7462 · 167,147 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 9 November 2026, 15:17 UTC Run at 9 November 2026, 15:17 UTC; 11 of 11 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Youth Justice Board for England and Wales; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-11-09T15:01:35Z; 2 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 2 of 2 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 11 of 11 figures and the headline reproduced; the meta's accreditation match |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 11 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 11 of 11 figures match exactly after downloading 2 source file(s) again (2 byte-identical); the headline matches; the meta's accreditation match |
| Pass | GOV.UK table is current | latest period 2024 ended 678 days before retrieval (limit 800), from Youth Justice Statistics: 2024 to 2025 supplementary tables |
| Pass | Table 2.2 gives Table 2.1's total | 11 of 11 figures match Table 2.2's all children, all offences |
| Pass | Boys and girls are within all children | 11 of 11 of Table 2.2's years give boys and girls who add up to no more than all children, which includes those whose sex is not recorded (its note 4) |
| Pass | The release's commentary agrees | https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/youth-justice-statistics-2024-to-2025/youth-justice-statistics-2024-to-2025 says just over 8,100 for 2024; the record gives 8,110.08 |
| Pass | Asian, Black and Other make up the ethnic minority groups | 11 of 11 cases of Table 2.1's years give Asian, Black and Other children who add up to its ethnic minority groups within 1e-06 (11 exactly) |
| Pass | The ethnic minority groups, White and Unknown make up the total | 11 of 11 cases of Table 2.1's years give ethnic minority, White and Unknown children who add up to its total within 1e-06 (11 exactly) |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/youth-justice-statistics – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- Children aged 10 to 17 who received their first caution, youth caution or conviction for an offence in England and Wales, in each year to December, as recorded on the Police National Computer. The Youth Justice Board publishes the counts with decimals, since some records are weighted; they are shown to the whole child, and the published figures are in the record's JSON.
- The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales publishes these as accredited official statistics.