Question to the Department for Education:

To Ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 15 July 2019 to Question 273801 on Child Exploitation, how many children-in-need assessments were undertaken in which criminal exploitation through county lines was identified as a potential risk to the child’s life in each year since 2015.

Regarding the number of children in need assessments undertaken in which criminal exploitation through county lines was identified as a potential risk to the child’s life, the information requested is not held centrally.

As part of the Children in Need census, we collect factors identified at the end of the assessment. These factors include trafficking, gangs and child sexual exploitation. However, this information gives no specific indication of county lines involvement or a risk to the child’s life. The information in fact indicates that the child has been referred and assessed by the local authority and that these issues were a factor at the end of assessment.

Information on the number of factors identified at the end of assessment, including trafficking, gangs and child sexual exploitation, is published in table C3 of the ‘Characteristics of children in need’ statistical release, which can be viewed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-children-in-need.