Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department holds data on the total number and proportion of children of compulsory school age in local authorities who were recorded as missing from 2020-22, including the statistical breakdown of the different groups of young people who are known to social services as a result of being a child (a) in need, (b) on a protection plan and (c) in care.

The government takes the matter of any child going missing very seriously and statutory guidance is in place on the responsibilities of local authorities working with partners, to prevent children going missing and to gather and share information and intelligence to reduce this risk. The guidance applies to all children going missing, whether this is from the family home or from care and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-who-run-away-or-go-missing-from-home-or-care.

The department does not hold data centrally on all children of compulsory school age in local authorities who are missing.

Statistics on police reported missing persons incidents are not held centrally either. Individual police forces hold information about current missing persons incidents which have been reported to police. Annual police force level missing persons statistics are published by the National Crime Agency’s Missing Person’s Unit. The most recent data report covers the 2019/20 financial year.

The department does collect and publish information on the number of episodes of need (rather than children) where an assessment was made that services may be required, or the child may be at risk of harm due to going/being missing. The published figure for the year ending 31 March 2020 was 18,200 and for the year ending 2021 was 14,490 and cover episodes for all children in need. Figures for those specifically on a child protection plan are not readily available.

Owing to their heightened vulnerabilities, the department also collects and publishes annual figures on children in care who were missing or away from placement without authorisation. The total number of children in care who went missing during the year ending 31 March 2020 was 12,430 (which represents 11 per cent of the 108,670 children in care during the year), whilst 10,880 (which represents 10 per cent of the 108,070 children in care during the year) were missing during the year ending 31 March 2021.

Statistics for the year ending 31 March 2022 will be published in Autumn 2022.