Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what comparative assessment he has made of the effectiveness of guardianship for separated and trafficked children in (a) Northern Ireland and (b) other constituent parts of the UK to ensure the identification of trafficking among separated children.

Children who are victims or potential victims of trafficking and those who are separated often face great anxiety and uncertainty about their futures, as well as needing to navigate a number of unfamiliar processes to reach durable solutions about their future.

I am aware of the regional service launched by the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Board in early 2018 to support children in Northern Ireland who are victims of human trafficking and children who are separated from their families and their home countries. The Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act (NI) 2015, which was introduced to provide protection from traffickers and tackle modern slavery and exploitation, included a duty for the Health and Social Care Board to establish such a service and the service is delivered by Barnardo’s NI.

The regional Independent Guardian Service is intended to strengthen the safeguarding arrangements to such children and specifically to assist, represent and support such children by listening to their views and making representation to, and liaising closely with all other agencies that fulfil key functions in the arrangements for their immediate and future care and protection.

This issue is wholly devolved in Northern Ireland, and so it would not be appropriate to carry out an assessment or comparisons of the merits of the system.