The Archbishop of Canterbury has joined with the charity The Children's Society to call on the British Government to honour a pledge made in 1991 to end the practice of remanding 15 and 16 year olds in prisons. The number of 15 and 16 years olds on remand in prison has risen by 200 per cent since 1991.

The Archbishop made the call on the day that The Children's Society launched its Remand Rescue Initiative, a national initiative set up to campaign for the end of remands in prison for young people and to help those young people already locked up. The Archbishop is President of the Society.

The project works with young people on remand in the country. At the launch of the campaign the charity said that the Government was flying in the face of overwhelming expert opinion by failing to act immediately on its pledge to end remands to custody for young people.

Backing the campaign the Archbishop said: "We are talking about children, infinitely precious to God, many of whom have been rejected, abused, who have had no stable home and are addicted to drugs. They have not been convicted of any offence. Yet these vulnerable, damaged children are locked up in bad company for weeks, sometimes months, on end, often 100 miles or more away from their families with a high risk of contamination, bullying, violence and self-harm." "This is an important moral and humanitarian issue. I know that many prison governors, magistrates, successive Chief Inspectors of Prisons and the Audit Commission are among those who share my deep disquiet about the imprisonment of children on remand. Let us not wait for more child suicides before we act energetically to develop a better way."