Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied child asylum seekers have entered the UK this year; and whether they plan to make the National Transfer Scheme compulsory for all local authorities.

The number of unaccompanied children who make asylum claims is published in the quarterly immigration statistics. The latest statistics can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2020/how-many-people-do-we-grant-asylum-or-protection-to

We are very grateful to local authorities who have pledged places to support the National Transfer Scheme (NTS) and we need more to come forward and do their bit for vulnerable children.

We recognise a need to achieve a more equitable distribution of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) and have therefore worked with local government partners to develop proposals to further improve the scheme which we have recently consulted on. We are grateful to local authorities for their responses to that consultation which we are carefully considering in order to develop a more sustainable long-term future model for the NTS. The consultation also sought views on a potential mandatory approach should participation in the voluntary scheme not achieve a more proportionate distribution of UASC.