Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support her Department provides for adults who have gone missing and returned to prevent them going missing again.

The Home Office has provided the charity Missing People £220,000 per annum since 2010/11. This funding supports the delivery of the charity’s 24hour helpline for missing people and their families, and publicity services that the charity provides. This improves the outcomes for missing people and their families and helps reduce the risk and duration of disappearances, mitigating the risks of harm that missing children and vulnerable adults are exposed to during a missing episode.

No assessment has been made of return interviews for vulnerable people who go missing.

A new framework is being launched in early November by the National Crime Agency’s UK Missing Persons Bureau. This framework, entitled "Missing from Care - A multi-agency approach to protecting vulnerable adults", is designed to provide increased safeguards for vulnerable adults who go missing. The framework recommends a de-brief ‘return interview’ be conducted within 72 hours for all missing or absent incidents; to be conducted by the vulnerable person’s designated carer or an independent professional.