Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that age assessments are accurate enough to prevent unaccompanied asylum-seeking children being relocated to Rwanda.

Everyone considered for relocations to Rwanda will be screened and have access to legal advice. Decisions will be taken on a case-by-case basis, and nobody will be removed if it is unsafe or inappropriate for them.

The measures the Government is bringing forward through the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 will address the current weaknesses in the age assessment system and ensure decision making is more robust.

Our reforms aim to make assessments more consistent and robust from the outset, with any disputed decisions resolved quickly and conclusively. We will create a power to enable the Home Secretary to introduce secondary legislation specifying scientific techniques of age assessment, which would widen the breadth of evidence on which to base decisions.

We will also establish a decision-making function in the Home Office, referred to as the National Age Assessment Board (NAAB). The NAAB will primarily consist of expert social workers whose task will be to conduct full age assessments, upon referral from a local authority. Local authorities will also retain the ability to conduct age assessments themselves.

We believe the measures we’re planning to introduce will make the system more robust and result in higher quality decisions on people’s age.

As part of these measures, in due course, individuals will also have a full right of appeal (including access to legal aid) to the First Tier Tribunal where they have been assessed as an age other than that claimed. This will provide for independent judicial oversight of the process ensuring the highest standards of decision making are adhered to. In the meantime, individuals will still be able to pursue the existing judicial review process.