Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people who arrived in the UK claiming to be unaccompanied children seeking asylum, and who underwent a Merton compliant age assessment and were determined as a child, were then found to be an adult, for each year since 2016; and what percentage of the number of Merton compliant age assessment tests this constituted, broken down by year since 2016.

The Home Office publishes data on asylum and resettlement in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’ on gov.uk. Data on Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children and age disputes are published in tables Asy_D01 and Asy_D05 of the ‘Asylum and Resettlement detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of each of the workbooks. The latest data relates to Q3 2023. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’ on gov.uk.

Data on age disputes includes age disputes that may have been resolved by means other than following a Merton compliant age assessment such as: receipt of credible and clear documentary evidence of age; a judicial finding on age; following a determination by two Home Office officers that the person’s physical appearance and demeanour very strongly suggests they are significantly over the age of 18; or, where the reasons for raising an age dispute no longer apply.