The Ministry of Justice has extended a trial of PAVA spray in young offender institutions (YOIs) for a second year. Under the trial, staff may carry the synthetic spray and use it on children.
Ministers first authorised the spray in August 2025 for 12 months. The trial covers the three YOIs in England: Feltham A, Werrington and Wetherby. It will now run until August 2027.
The Howard League for Penal Reform learned of the decision through a letter from the department. The charity had brought an unsuccessful legal challenge to stop the trial. It described the latest decision as “disappointing”.
The High Court ruled that the decision to authorise the spray was lawful. Yet the judge acknowledged that the department did not expect PAVA to cut overall violence and harm in prisons holding children. The judge also accepted that it might lead to a “long-term escalation and rising tenor of violent behaviour”.
Justice Minister Jake Richards wrote to the Howard League to explain the extension. He said ministers had not taken the decision lightly. Violence in the secure estate for children and young people still posed significant challenges, he wrote. Staff needed the means to respond to the most serious incidents and prevent harm to young people and staff alike.
Mr Richards said the extension would keep PAVA available under strict safeguards. In the meantime, the department would gather more evidence on its effectiveness and impact. In the long term, he wrote, the government wanted to cut use of force significantly across the youth secure estate. That aim depended on a sustained fall in violence, he added.
The minister acknowledged ongoing concern about disproportionality. This included any impact on Black children and on children who are neurodiverse.
Ministers received two documents when they first decided to introduce the spray. An Equality Impact Assessment and a Child Rights Impact Assessment both showed that the spray would likely hit Black children, Muslim children and children with disabilities particularly hard.
Gemma Abbott, Legal Director at the Howard League, voiced disappointment that staff would keep using the spray against children for another year. She pointed to the government’s recent Youth Justice White Paper. In it, she said, the government admitted that children’s prisons were violent, unsafe and not fit for purpose.
She added that children could not receive rehabilitation in such places. In her view, they bore the brunt of the state’s failure to build a youth justice system that helped communities feel safe and thrive.
