Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the total number of children being criminally exploited in England and Wales.

The exploitation of children for criminal purposes is wholly unacceptable and this Government is determined to tackle it.

In 2020 there were 2544 National Referral Mechanism (NRM) referrals for Child Criminal Exploitation only. There were an additional 687 NRM referrals for children criminally exploited in addition to other exploitation types. The data is published on gov.uk : Official statistics overview: Modern Slavery: National Referral Mechanism and Duty to Notify statistics UK, end of year summary 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

We are committed to increasing awareness of county lines exploitation amongst those best placed to spot it and have published guidance for frontline professionals on how to identify potential victims of county lines and appropriate referral routes. Criminal Exploitation of children and vulnerable adults: County Lines guidance (publishing.service.gov.uk)