Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made in the last six months of the causes behind child victims of trafficking going missing shortly after the point of referral to the National Referral Mechanism.

The unaccompanied asylum seeking (UASC) Safeguarding Strategy, published in November 2017, included a commitment to pilot a standardised process for police when they first encounter an unaccompanied child, to inform effective practice in preventing UASC from going missing. Hertfordshire Police successfully implemented their First Encounter Pilot which has reduced missing incidents of the children it identified. It is now available to all forces nationally; to date 12 forces have begun implementing the process.

We are working to deliver a National Register of Missing Persons (NRMP) and for it to be in operation in 2020/2021. The Home Office is working to update the Government’s Missing Children and Adults Strategy, which was published in 2011. The refreshed strategy will be accompanied by an implementation plan that will include an action to deliver the NRMP.

On 16 January 2017, the Home Secretary announced £2.2m from the Child Trafficking Protection Fund. This has been awarded to seven organisations to protect vulnerable children in the UK and overseas who are at risk of trafficking.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) regularly publishes National Referral Mechanism (NRM) data but does not publish data about the number, proportion and referrals that have been made to the National Referral Mechanism as result of gang involvement. Latest statistics on NRM referrals and decisions are available at the following link:

http://nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/national-referral-mechanism-statistics/2018-nrm-statistics

Further information is also available in the 2018 UK Annual Report on Modern Slavery which was published on 18 October 2018.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2018-uk-annual-report-on-modern-slavery