Young Offenders Act 1997

This section applies if—

a child has not made a non-denial statement for an offence, and

an investigating official believes the child could be dealt with by way of a caution or conference for the offence if the child makes a non-denial statement.

The investigating official may offer the child an opportunity to make a non-denial statement for the offence.

Before offering a child an opportunity to make a non-denial statement under this section, the investigating official must explain the following to the child—

the nature of the offence and the circumstances out of which the offence is alleged to have arisen,

that it appears to the investigating official that the child could be dealt with by way of a caution or conference if the child makes a non-denial statement,

that if the child makes the non-denial statement, the investigating official will make a determination as to whether the child should be dealt with by way of a caution under Part 4 or the matter should be referred to a specialist youth officer under Part 5 to determine whether a youth justice conference should be held,

that if the child makes a non-denial statement under this section, the statement cannot be admitted as evidence in subsequent civil or criminal proceedings.

A non-denial statement made by the child after an offer under this section must not be admitted in evidence in any subsequent criminal or civil proceedings.

To avoid doubt, subsection (4)—

applies to a non-denial statement whether made in the standard written form approved by the Secretary under section 10(3) or otherwise, but

does not apply to a formal guilty plea referred to in section 10(5).

Subsection (4) applies even if the investigating official failed to comply with subsection (3).