Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of a potential link between children going missing and the risk of exploitation, including child criminal exploitation and child sexual exploitation.

We recognise that missing episodes, especially repeat missing episodes, however brief, can often be a red flag for a number of harms including child sexual exploitation and criminal exploitation.

Each missing child case represents a vulnerable young person at risk, often with complex underlying causes that need to be understood and addressed. We are working to support the NPCC and its rollout of its ‘Children who go Missing from Care’ Framework as another vital tool when tackling head-on the underlying vulnerabilities in children that often lead to missing episodes and further strengthening frontline response.

In addition, the new National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection (NCVPP) launched in April 2025 to improve the response to violence against women and girls and child sexual abuse. The Home Office has already invested £13.1 million into the Centre in 2025-25 and will provide a further £13.9m funding this financial year. The NCVPP will improve the response to missing children by driving up standards; developing best practices and delivering training to officers across a range of vulnerabilities.

We will continue to work closely across Government Departments, with the police and other safeguarding partners, to improve the whole system response to missing children.