Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the average length of time its takes for local authorities to conduct a Merton compliant age assessment for an individual held in an immigration removal centre and classified as an age dispute case.

It is not possible to provide information in such cases, without the examination of individual records at disproportionate cost.

Guidance has recently been issued by the Home Office and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services to remind all the agencies involved in age dispute cases of the importance of working together to resolve them as quickly as possible. The guidance is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/age-assessment-joint-working-instruction