Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the briefing by the Refugee and Migrant Children's Consortium Decisions in Unaccompanied Children's Asylum Claims and in particular (1) why there has been a significant reduction in protection grant rates in children's cases, and (2) whether they will disaggregate the appeal statistics for unaccompanied children by nationality and age.

The Home Office is aware of the Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium (RMCC) briefing.

Published Immigration Statistics indicate that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) received 2,328 grants of protection or other leave at initial decision in the Year-Ending (YE) March 2026. The grant rate of UASC claims was 58% in the YE March 2026, higher than for non-UASC claims (39%). The UASC grant rate at initial decision has fallen in each year since 2021 and so a lower grant rate in 2026 is consistent with the overall trend. This is also consistent with the general trend of a fall in the initial grant rate across all claims.

All asylum claims are considered on their individual merits in line with the relevant legislation and published policy including ‘Processing Children’s Claims’ guidance and country information. Decisions are made by caseworkers specifically trained to handle claims from children, who are instructed to take factors including age and maturity into account when assessing credibility and risk on return.

The grant rate can vary for a number of reasons, including the mix of nationalities claiming asylum, and the protection needs of those who claim asylum in the UK. It is also affected by operational resourcing and policy decisions, such as changes to the types of cases prioritised for decisions. The Home Office guidance on caseworking prioritisation is published on GOV.UK.

Regarding the statistics available on unaccompanied children, a breakdown on the number of cases awaiting an appeal outcome and awaiting removal is not currently available beyond June 2024 due to work on the transition to a new caseworking system, though work is ongoing to reinstate the data and figures. Once reporting resumes, future publications should be able to provide disaggregated figures.

Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data. These reviews allow us to balance the production of our regular statistics whilst developing new statistics for future release.