Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Missing People Support Services Funding Grant.

The charity, Missing People, plays a unique safeguarding role with respect to vulnerable missing children and adults, including support for, and promotion of, live police missing persons investigations. This represents a significant cost saving to police forces, enabling them to focus resources on their investigations.

In 2020-21, the charity received a Home Office grant of £122,898.00 for their Support Services. This grant was monitored via regular meetings between the charity and Home Office officials, and an end of year grant report. During the period of this grant, Missing People responded to almost 45,000 police referrals. Support offered included:

• 43,741 TextSafe messages sent to missing children and adult, signposting the charity’s support services
• 1,247 publicity appeals launched
• 2,393 families supported