Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to require Ofsted to regularly inspect hotels housing unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

The safety and wellbeing of those in our care is our primary concern.

There are no plans to require Ofsted to regularly inspect hotels. The best solution is for young people to be housed in local authority care and we are working closely to increase the supply of placements. The National Transfer scheme (NTS) has seen 3,148 children transferred to local authorities with children’s services between 1 July 2021 and 30 September 2022. This compares to 739 children transferred in the same time period in the previous year. We are going further by 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 Children’s Commissioner (CC) does not have any specific duties with UASC accommodation. However, in order to carry out her primary function of promoting and protecting the rights of children in England, she does have statutory power to enter premises to conduct interviews or observe standards. The CC has visited accommodation on a number of occasions and provided recommendations following her visits.