Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many cases of child abuse and neglect were reported in (a) Merseyside and (b) St Helens in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012, (iv) 2013, (v) 2014 and (vi) 2015.

The information requested is not available. We do not collect the reason for referrals so cannot identify how many of these were due to abuse or neglect.

Data on referrals is available by local authority and region in the annual statistical first release ‘Characteristics of children in need’’[1].

Once a child has been referred and any relevant assessments have been carried out, we collect information on the primary needs of children in need of children’s social care services. In 2014/15, 66% of children in need in St Helens local authority had a primary need of abuse or neglect.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-children-in-need