Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to collect and publish data and analysis on the ethnicity of looked-after children who go missing, including their recorded risk factors, such as mental health issues, sexual exploitation or criminal exploitation.

The department collects information on children looked after in the annual Children Looked After (SSDA903) data return, including information on missing incidents. The data collected includes the primary need of a child starting to be looked after, which is collected using an established code set, set out in the collection guide. These categories are not intended to be exhaustive, and mental health issues, sexual exploitation or criminal exploitation are not specified categories. The data collection guide is published online at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/children-looked-after-return-guide-to-submitting-data.

The department publishes an annual statistical release which contains information on looked after children who have gone missing. This release disaggregates missing incidents by age, duration or placement, but not ethnicity, although this data is collected. The department reviews the content of statistical publications in light of user needs.

The published information is available in table G1 of the ‘Children looked after in England’ statistical release, which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions.