Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had recent discussions with local authorities on the risk of child refugees (a) disappearing and (b) being kidnapped from hotels run by her Department.

The wellbeing, welfare and security of children and minors in our care is an absolute priority. Robust safeguarding procedures are in place to ensure all children and minors are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with local authorities.

Officials hold regular meetings with local authorities to arrange the placement of young people via the National Transfer Scheme, to consider strategic improvements to the processes and procedures and in response to the concern around young people going missing from hotels.

We continue to consult multi-agency partners and subject matter experts to ensure our processes and procedures are robust and evolve as new trends or risks emerge. Local police forces are engaged in ongoing activity where a child fails to return to a hotel and this data is shared across the police national computer as it would be in any case where a child goes missing