Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to join the Council of Europe Development Bank.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The position remains as set out to the Noble Lord on 29 April 2019 in response to Question HL15270: the UK already has effective instruments to deliver development and investment objectives, including through our multilateral shareholdings such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and therefore has no plans to join the Council of Europe Development Bank.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether, as part of talks seeking an end to the war in Ukraine, they plan to raise the issue of Ukrainian children living in Russian-occupied territories being detained and taken to Russia.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
I refer the Noble Lord to the answers I provided to the House on Ukraine: Forcible Removal of Children on 24 November. We remain, as ever, committed to supporting Ukrainian efforts to facilitate the return and reintegration of children deported by Russia.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether any unaccompanied migrant children are housed in hotels.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office closed the last of the Home Office-run unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children hotels on 31 January 2024 and since then arriving unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children have been accommodated by local authorities in line with their statutory duties.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied migrant children reported missing have been found in each of the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is shown in the below table. The footnotes for the missing data table should be reviewed as they explain some of the limitations to this data.
Data on looked after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in England is published in the annual statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoptions’. The latest data is for year ending 31 March 2025 and has been available since 20 November 2025.
In these statistics, ‘missing’ is defined as a looked after child who is not at their placement or a place they are expected to be and their whereabouts is not known. A child may have had multiple missing incidents during a year that may have been resolved only to conclude with a further incident that results in the child being missing again on 31 March. Any missing incident is concerning but the vast majority (91%) of incidents, where a child who is looked after and reportedly goes missing, last for two days or less.
The department holds responsibility for the collection and publication of statistics for children looked after by local authorities in England only. Similar statistics for other countries in the UK are the responsibility of the devolved administrations.
Children missing on 31 March who were unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), 2021 to 2025, England
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
Children looked after on 31 March who were UASC | 4,150 | 5,680 | 7,410 | 7,440 | 6,540 |
Number of UASC who went missing during | 1,000 | 1,160 | 1,490 | 1,700 | 1,620 |
Number of UASC who were missing on 31 March | 80 | 80 | 60 | 70 | 40 |
Footnotes
1. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Figures exclude children looked after under a series of short-term placements.
2. Historical data may differ from older publications which is mainly due to amendments made by local authorities after the previous publication. However, users looking for a longer time series may wish to check for the equivalent table in earlier releases.
3. Missing is defined as a looked after child who is not at their placement or a place they are expected to be and their whereabouts is not known.
4. Since 2017 a growing number of local authorities informed the department that they do not record incidents as 'away without authorisation', but instead report all incidents as 'missing' to maintain consistency with local police reporting. We estimate this could mean an overestimate of missing incidents of up to 13% in 2021, 10% in 2022, 11% in 2023, 13% in 2024 and 12% in 2025; suggesting the true figures could be more like 9,600, 11,100, 11,500, 11,500 and 11,300. There is a corresponding estimate of an undercount of away without authorisation incidents of up to 32% in 2021, 30% in 2022, 32% in 2023, 36% in 2024 and 32% in 2025; suggesting the true figures could be more like 3,800, 3,600, 3,900, 4,300 and 4,300. However some of these local authorities submitted some 'away without authorisation' information and this can be found in the away from placement without authorisation table.
5. Figures for 2021 exclude data for Hackney.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied migrant children are currently reported missing.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is shown in the below table. The footnotes for the missing data table should be reviewed as they explain some of the limitations to this data.
Data on looked after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in England is published in the annual statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoptions’. The latest data is for year ending 31 March 2025 and has been available since 20 November 2025.
In these statistics, ‘missing’ is defined as a looked after child who is not at their placement or a place they are expected to be and their whereabouts is not known. A child may have had multiple missing incidents during a year that may have been resolved only to conclude with a further incident that results in the child being missing again on 31 March. Any missing incident is concerning but the vast majority (91%) of incidents, where a child who is looked after and reportedly goes missing, last for two days or less.
The department holds responsibility for the collection and publication of statistics for children looked after by local authorities in England only. Similar statistics for other countries in the UK are the responsibility of the devolved administrations.
Children missing on 31 March who were unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), 2021 to 2025, England
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
Children looked after on 31 March who were UASC | 4,150 | 5,680 | 7,410 | 7,440 | 6,540 |
Number of UASC who went missing during | 1,000 | 1,160 | 1,490 | 1,700 | 1,620 |
Number of UASC who were missing on 31 March | 80 | 80 | 60 | 70 | 40 |
Footnotes
1. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Figures exclude children looked after under a series of short-term placements.
2. Historical data may differ from older publications which is mainly due to amendments made by local authorities after the previous publication. However, users looking for a longer time series may wish to check for the equivalent table in earlier releases.
3. Missing is defined as a looked after child who is not at their placement or a place they are expected to be and their whereabouts is not known.
4. Since 2017 a growing number of local authorities informed the department that they do not record incidents as 'away without authorisation', but instead report all incidents as 'missing' to maintain consistency with local police reporting. We estimate this could mean an overestimate of missing incidents of up to 13% in 2021, 10% in 2022, 11% in 2023, 13% in 2024 and 12% in 2025; suggesting the true figures could be more like 9,600, 11,100, 11,500, 11,500 and 11,300. There is a corresponding estimate of an undercount of away without authorisation incidents of up to 32% in 2021, 30% in 2022, 32% in 2023, 36% in 2024 and 32% in 2025; suggesting the true figures could be more like 3,800, 3,600, 3,900, 4,300 and 4,300. However some of these local authorities submitted some 'away without authorisation' information and this can be found in the away from placement without authorisation table.
5. Figures for 2021 exclude data for Hackney.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied migrant children are being cared for in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is shown in the below table. The footnotes for the missing data table should be reviewed as they explain some of the limitations to this data.
Data on looked after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in England is published in the annual statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoptions’. The latest data is for year ending 31 March 2025 and has been available since 20 November 2025.
In these statistics, ‘missing’ is defined as a looked after child who is not at their placement or a place they are expected to be and their whereabouts is not known. A child may have had multiple missing incidents during a year that may have been resolved only to conclude with a further incident that results in the child being missing again on 31 March. Any missing incident is concerning but the vast majority (91%) of incidents, where a child who is looked after and reportedly goes missing, last for two days or less.
The department holds responsibility for the collection and publication of statistics for children looked after by local authorities in England only. Similar statistics for other countries in the UK are the responsibility of the devolved administrations.
Children missing on 31 March who were unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), 2021 to 2025, England
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
Children looked after on 31 March who were UASC | 4,150 | 5,680 | 7,410 | 7,440 | 6,540 |
Number of UASC who went missing during | 1,000 | 1,160 | 1,490 | 1,700 | 1,620 |
Number of UASC who were missing on 31 March | 80 | 80 | 60 | 70 | 40 |
Footnotes
1. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Figures exclude children looked after under a series of short-term placements.
2. Historical data may differ from older publications which is mainly due to amendments made by local authorities after the previous publication. However, users looking for a longer time series may wish to check for the equivalent table in earlier releases.
3. Missing is defined as a looked after child who is not at their placement or a place they are expected to be and their whereabouts is not known.
4. Since 2017 a growing number of local authorities informed the department that they do not record incidents as 'away without authorisation', but instead report all incidents as 'missing' to maintain consistency with local police reporting. We estimate this could mean an overestimate of missing incidents of up to 13% in 2021, 10% in 2022, 11% in 2023, 13% in 2024 and 12% in 2025; suggesting the true figures could be more like 9,600, 11,100, 11,500, 11,500 and 11,300. There is a corresponding estimate of an undercount of away without authorisation incidents of up to 32% in 2021, 30% in 2022, 32% in 2023, 36% in 2024 and 32% in 2025; suggesting the true figures could be more like 3,800, 3,600, 3,900, 4,300 and 4,300. However some of these local authorities submitted some 'away without authorisation' information and this can be found in the away from placement without authorisation table.
5. Figures for 2021 exclude data for Hackney.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people with autism they estimate are seeking full-time employment.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP analysis of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS) shows there were an estimated 40,000 people with Autism who said they were looking for full-time employment in 2024/25.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people with autism they estimate have found work in the past 12 months.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on the number of disabled people with autism who have found work in the past 12 months is published by the Department at: The employment of disabled people - GOV.UK.
There were an estimated 90,000 people with Autism who moved into employment between 2023 and 2024 (the latest data available).
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they accepted the recommendation in the Buckland Review of Autism Employment to set up a task group to review progress on expanding employment opportunities for people with autism.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In the plan to Make Work Pay (October 2024), we committed to raising awareness of all forms of neurodiversity (including autism) in the workplace.
In January 2025, DWP launched an independent panel of academics with expertise and experiences of neurodiversity to advise us on boosting neurodiversity awareness and inclusion at work. This is building on the work of the Buckland Review, which was published under the previous Government, and focused more narrowly on autism employment. The evidence review concluded in late summer 2025 and the panel will be reporting their findings and recommendations shortly.
Although this Government has not made a formal response to the Buckland Review, the Ministers for Employment and Social Security and Disability met Sir Robert Buckland in October 2024 to talk about his findings and key drivers for change in the workplace. In addition, Professor Amanda Kirby, Chair of the Academic Panel, has subsequently met Sir Robert to discuss the panel's terms of reference, scope, and timelines, and in June they jointly gave evidence to this House’s Autism Act 2009 Committee.
The Government will decide next steps in the light of the panel’s recommendations, and other relevant reviews such as Sir Charlie Mayfield’s Keep Britain Working Review.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent discussions they have had with Sir Robert Buckland concerning his review on employing people with autism.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In the plan to Make Work Pay (October 2024), we committed to raising awareness of all forms of neurodiversity (including autism) in the workplace.
In January 2025, DWP launched an independent panel of academics with expertise and experiences of neurodiversity to advise us on boosting neurodiversity awareness and inclusion at work. This is building on the work of the Buckland Review, which was published under the previous Government, and focused more narrowly on autism employment. The evidence review concluded in late summer 2025 and the panel will be reporting their findings and recommendations shortly.
Although this Government has not made a formal response to the Buckland Review, the Ministers for Employment and Social Security and Disability met Sir Robert Buckland in October 2024 to talk about his findings and key drivers for change in the workplace. In addition, Professor Amanda Kirby, Chair of the Academic Panel, has subsequently met Sir Robert to discuss the panel's terms of reference, scope, and timelines, and in June they jointly gave evidence to this House’s Autism Act 2009 Committee.
The Government will decide next steps in the light of the panel’s recommendations, and other relevant reviews such as Sir Charlie Mayfield’s Keep Britain Working Review.