Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government takes to minimise the separation of peer and sibling groups among unaccompanied asylum-seeking children as part of the National Transfer Scheme.

The National Transfer Protocol, which provides guidance on the operation of the National Transfer Scheme and can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/534258/Interim_National_UASC_transfer_protocol.pdf, sets out that a child’s best interests must be at the heart of transfer decisions. This will include taking account of an unaccompanied child’s peer and sibling groups and ensuring that unaccompanied children can maintain contact and, wherever possible, are placed in the same local authority area as their siblings.