Sarah Champion – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many unaccompanied children seeking asylum have been referred by her Department to the Refugee Council Children’s Section for advice in the last two years.

James Brokenshire

All unaccompanied asylum seeking children are referred to the Refugee Council’s panel of advisers.

Age-assessments of unaccompanied asylum seeking children are conducted by local authorities. The guidance to local authority practitioners states that most assessments should be completed within 28 days, however the timescale for assessment should be responsive to the needs of the child or young person. The Home Office does not collect statistics on how many and what proportion are carried out within this timescale.

Statistics on the number of age disputes raised and resolved for asylum applicants for each quarter from January 2010 to September 2015 are available on GOV.UK at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/476915/asylum3-q3-2015-tabs.ods

The Home Office does not keep a record of the number of appeals against age assessments conducted by local authorities.

Home Office policy is not to return unaccompanied asylum seeking children whose claim has been refused unless there are safe and adequate reception arrangements in place. Statistics on the number of children removed from the UK in 2014 are available on Gov.UK at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/476919/removals1-q3-2015-tabs.ods

However, these statistics include all nationalities and non-asylum cases.