Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to help (a) find and return to safety and (b) prevent the further disappearance of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

The safety and wellbeing of those in our care is our primary concern. We have safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all young people in hotels are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with a local authority.

Young people are supported by team leaders and support workers who are on site 24 hours a day. Further care is provided in hotels by teams of social workers and nurses. All contingency sites have security staff on site and providers liaise closely with local police to ensure the welfare and safety of vulnerable residents.

Since July 2021, when unaccompanied asylum seeking children were first accommodated in hotels, there have been 447 missing episodes (the term episode used as some children have gone missing been located and subsequently gone missing again). 186 of these young people are still missing.

This is based on local management information and therefore liable to change.

If a young person goes missing from a care setting, including a UASC hotel, the MARS (Missing After Reasonable Steps) protocol is followed. A multi-agency, missing persons meeting is chaired by the local authority to establish the young person's whereabouts and to ensure that they are safe. When used correctly, similar protocols within police forces have safely reduced the number of missing episodes from placements by 36%.

The Home Office work with the police and local authorities to ensure the children in our care are safe and the Police are responsible for locating any missing children.