Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that (a) the age of refugee children is accurately assessed at the port of entry and (b) they are not inappropriately placed in adult (i) accommodation and (ii) detention settings.

It is Home Office policy that an individual claiming to be a child will only be treated as an adult, if two Home Office members of staff independently determine that the individual's physical appearance and demeanour very strongly suggests they are significantly over 18 years of age. The lawfulness of this process was endorsed by the Supreme Court in the case of R (on the application of BF (Eritrea)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] UKSC 38.

Where there remains doubt about the individual’s age, they will be transferred to a local authority for further consideration of their age, usually in the form of a holistic social worker assessment of age, referred to as a ‘Merton’ age assessment.

We continue to work with local authorities and our asylum accommodation providers to ensure appropriate processes for individuals claiming to be children. For example, we have already improved information sharing with local authorities so that we are more routinely sharing reports for initial decisions on age, when required, as well as reviewing the initial decisions on age training rolled out to Home Office staff at the Western Jet Foil in Kent. We are also exploring new methods of scientific and technological age assessment, including Facial Age Estimation.