Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the National Transfer Scheme will restart; and when the outcome of the review of that scheme will be published.

The National Transfer Scheme never stopped. I am very grateful for the ongoing assistance of many local authorities. In 2020, the National Transfer Scheme (NTS) placed 480 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children into local authority placements across the UK.

We recently consulted on a more sustainable long-term future model for the NTS designed to ensure unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are placed in an equitable and fair manner in local authorities across the UK.

I am grateful to local authorities for their thoughtful and considered consultation responses. We received over 200 responses, including some which captured the views and experiences of young people. It is crucial that we get the new scheme right. We are carefully considering the responses and working through the issues raised with local government partners. We are aiming to deliver the new scheme as soon as possible.