Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) looked after children went missing and (b) incidents there were of looked after children going missing from their placement there were for each (i) type of placement and (ii) age of child in each of the last five years; and whether each such child who went missing was in a distant placement.

Figures on the number of children who had a missing incident in the year ending 31 March 2015, and the number of incidents by placement type and age, are attached. Data for earlier years was only collected for children who were missing for a period of at least 24 hours. Information on the distance of the placement from which a looked after child went missing is not readily available.