Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of the new regulations for age assessments for asylum seekers on the level of safeguarding risk arising from adults pretending to be children.

The National Age Assessment Board (NAAB) launched on 31 March 2023. The NAAB aims to make age assessments more consistent and robust from the outset, reducing the safeguarding risks of individuals being incorrectly assessed. The service is currently limited to working with a small number of local authorities in London and West Midland regions with a view to expanding out nationally as we build up capacity. We will continue to monitor the impact of the National Age Assessment Board on customer behaviour.