Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department plans to take to reduce the number of repeat missing incidents amongst children.

The Government recognises the need for an effective multi-agency response to missing person investigations and we are clear in our ambition to reduce missing incidents and safeguard those vulnerable to going missing. Missing children and adults represent a concern which spans many cross-Governmental priorities and policy areas. The Home Office is committed to working with the Department for Education and Department for Health and Social Care and other relevant departments; sending a clear message that missing needs a whole-system response.

Repeat missing incidents are often a red flag for a number of the harms, such as child sexual or criminal exploitation. The Home Office is heavily invested in supporting and protecting vulnerable people, particularly children and young people from all forms of harm.

The Home Office and Department for Education have been supporting the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) lead for Missing Persons in the development of a 'Missing Children from Care' framework, which has been piloted in West Yorkshire. This framework outlines good practice that can be adopted by local areas when setting up their own multi-agency protocols for the strategic and operational response to a missing incident, with an aim to ensure that the appropriate safeguarding partner responds in the best interest of the missing person.