Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, in cases where a child awaiting a National Referral Mechanism (NRM) decision has been reported missing and does not return within 48 hours, how long is the NRM case file held open for before it is suspended.

When the Single Competent Authority becomes aware that an individual is missing, their National Referral Mechanism (NRM) case can be suspended unless there is already sufficient information available on which to make a decision. Suspended cases can be reopened at any time.

Sections 14.194 - 14.204 of the Modern Slavery: Statutory Guidance for England and Wales (under s49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015) and Non-Statutory Guidance for Scotland and Northern Ireland Version 2.0 sets out the actions the SCA takes when suspending a case.

The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics regarding the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) the latest published NRM statistics can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-referral-mechanism-statistics. However, the statistics do not currently contain data on the number of cases suspended prior to a Conclusive Grounds decision.