Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the response to the Urgent Question on 24 January 2023 on Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking Children, Official Report column 859, of the 4,600 unaccompanied children that have been accommodated in hotels since July 2021, what is the (a) shortest, (b) average and (c) longest number of days that they have remained in that form of accommodation.

All young people in interim emergency unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) hotels are referred immediately to a local authority under the mandated National Transfer Scheme (NTS) within the shortest time frame possible after arrival. We are clear that we must end the use of hotels as soon as possible. To that end, we are providing local authorities with children’s services with £15,000 for every eligible young person they take into their care from a dedicated UASC hotel, or the Reception and Safe Care Service in Kent, by the end of February 2023.

The unprecedented number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in small boats has placed significant local authority care places for UASC under immense strain. There were 5,152 asylum applications from unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in the year ending September 2022, a 36% increase compared with 2019 (3,775).

Out of necessity, and with the best interests of the child in mind, we have had no alternative but to temporarily use hotels to give some unaccompanied children a roof over their heads whilst local authority accommodation is found.

The time it takes for a local authority to identify a placement varies and has meant some young people experiencing delays in transferring. Where there are significant delays we will look to reallocate the young person to a different local authority.

There are many reasons for delays in NTS. For instance, delays also occur where a child refuses to transfer to the placement. In this instance, social workers from the emergency hotels and local authorities work close with the children to encourage them to take the offered placement.

The length of stay for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in Home Office UASC hotels are:

Shortest stay – 0 days

Longest stay – 122 days

Average length of stay: 19.04 days