Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many meetings she had with asylum centre providers to discuss reports of abductions of unaccompanied children in the last twelve months.

The Home Office engages with a range of internal and external stakeholders in relation to the provision of support and accommodation to destitute asylum seekers, through a variety of channels.

The wellbeing of children and minors in our care is an absolute priority. Robust safeguarding procedures are in place to ensure all children and minors are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with local authorities.

We continue to consult multi-agency partners and subject matter experts to ensure our processes and procedures are robust and evolve as new trends or risks emerge. Local police forces are engaged in ongoing activity where a child fails to return to a hotel and this data is shared across the police national computer as it would be in any case where a child goes missing.