Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in the UK are reported as missing as of September 2023.

The Home Office does not hold this data centrally. Information about current missing persons incidents is held by individual police forces. The National Crime Agency’s UK Missing Persons Unit holds the national database for all missing incidents that are unresolved after 72hours, allowing the police to have access to missing persons information across force boundaries. In addition, annual missing persons statistics, broken down to police force level, are published by the National Crime Agency’s Missing Person’s Unit in its annual data report which can be found here: Downloads | UK Missing Persons Unit

We are working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) to deliver a National Register of Missing Persons (NRMP) which will enable us to have a snapshot of live missing incidents across police forces in England and Wales. This will assist officers when they encounter a missing person particularly if that missing person is outside their home force area.