Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many children under (a) 18, (b) 16, (c) 14 and (d) 11 years old have been placed in Home Office arranged hotel accommodation for unaccompanied asylum seeking children (i) in Brighton and Hove (ii) in the UK since July 2021.

There has been a significant increase in the numbers of young people making unnecessary and dangerous journeys to the UK and the Home Office has had no alternative but to temporarily use hotels in order to give some unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) emergency accommodation and support while permanent accommodation with a local authority is identified. We are determined to end the use of hotels for these young people and Home Office officials are working tirelessly with local authorities to move children into care placements through the National Transfer Scheme (NTS).

We take the safety of those in our care seriously. We have robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all young people in emergency interim 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 24/7 and providers liaise closely with local police to ensure the welfare and safety of vulnerable residents.

The NTS has seen 4,875 children transferred to local authorities with children’s services between 1 July 2021 and 31 March 2023, which is over six times the number of transfers in the same time frame in previous years, (October 2019 – June 2021 there were 793 transfers).