Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of looked after children were unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in each local authority in each month since January 2017.

Information on the number of looked after children, including unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, is submitted to the department on an annual basis and is published at local authority level in the department’s statistical release, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions. Information on the numbers and proportion of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children at 31 March in the years 2017 to 2023 is attached. Figures are produced on an annual rather than monthly basis.

Information on the number of care leavers who were former unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is submitted to the department on an annual basis and is routinely published at national level in the department’s statistical release, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions. Information on the numbers and proportion of care leavers who were former unaccompanied asylum-seeking children at 31 March by local authority for the years 2017 to 2023 is attached.

Information on a monthly basis is not held centrally by the department.