Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the (a) number and (b) quality of age assessments carried out by social workers following visual assessments by her Department's officials for the purposes of immigration and asylum; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of establishing an independent oversight body to conduct or commission analysis on age assessments.

If an assessment is conducted by a local authority the Home Office considers the assessment alongside other relevant evidence before a final decision is made for immigration purposes – this includes checking whether the assessment was conducted in compliance with caselaw. Decisions on age for immigration purposes fall within the remit of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration which monitors and reports on the effectiveness of the Home Office’s immigration and asylum functions.

The Home Office publishes data on the number of age disputes and outcomes in table Asy_D05 of the asylum and resettlement detailed datasets. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data covers up to November 2022. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’. The statistics do not currently distinguish between those who have been assessed to be significantly over 18 and others who have been age disputed but referred directly to a local authority for further assessment.