Section 80A(5) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 and section 6(5) of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 set out some examples of what may constitute exceptional circumstances, relevant to the substantive consideration of asylum claims and to removal under the Illegal Migration Act to s.80AA(1) listed states (respectively). These examples are neither exhaustive nor relevant to all cases, and do not purport to be.

Exceptional circumstances are not defined or limited in legislation, but will be considered and applied on a case-by-case basis where it is appropriate.

When we commence and implement the wider measures as set out in section 59 of the Illegal Migration Act 2023, we will provide updated guidance to assist caseworkers in their consideration of exceptional circumstances, and the wider provisions.

We maintain that the best place for these children to be accommodated is within local authority care. As part of the national transfer scheme, the receiving local authority must provide suitable support for all children being moved into their care, including health care, irrespective of the child’s immigration status.

Asylum seekers have access to health and social care services from the point of arrival in the UK. The Home Office and its contractors work closely with the NHS, local authorities and non-governmental organisations to ensure that people can access the healthcare and support they need.

All accommodation providers, including those who were responsible for the unaccompanied asylum seeking children hotels that were previously set up and run by the Home Office, have a contractual duty to assist people in accessing the health care they need.

The Home Office also operates a Safeguarding Hub to support vulnerable individuals in accessing these services. In addition, the Home Office contracts Migrant Help to provide advice and guidance to asylum seekers should they have an issue with their accommodation or support, and for signposting to health and welfare services. Asylum seekers can access Migrant Help 24/7, every day of the year by a freephone telephone number, via an online chat or completing an email enquiry form both of which can be accessed free of charge on the Migrant Help website. Interpreting and translation services are available through Migrant Help when the need arises for asylum seekers to raise any queries or concerns.

We maintain that the best place for these children to be accommodated is within local authority care where they can receive the most appropriate support based on their individual needs.

We had robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all young people who were temporarily accommodated in Home Office run hotels were safe and supported as we sought urgent placements with a local authority.

Young people were supported by team leaders and support workers who were on site 24 hours a day. Further care was provided in hotels by teams of social workers and nurses. All contingency sites had security staff on site 24/7 and providers liaised closely with local police to ensure the welfare and safety of vulnerable residents.

The wellbeing of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is our priority. We maintain that the best place for these children to be accommodated is within local authority care.

There are currently no unaccompanied children in hotels and unaccompanied children’s hotel accommodation has been empty since 18 November 2023. Of the 7 hotels which were operational in 2022, 6 of those were closed permanently on 30 November 2023.

We take the safety of those in our care seriously.  We have robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all young people in emergency interim hotels were safe and supported as we sought urgent placements with a local authority.

Police forces are responsible for locating missing children, in their region, in line with standard processes for any missing child in the UK.

When children who were provided with emergency Home Office accommodation went missing the MARS (Missing After Reasonable Steps) protocol was followed. The local authority works with multiple agencies to establish the young person's whereabouts and to ensure that they are safe.

Children staying in the Home Office hotels were supported by team leaders and support workers who were on site 24 hours a day. Further care was provided in hotels by teams of social workers and nurses. All contingency sites had security staff on site 24/7 and providers liaised closely with local police to ensure the welfare and safety of vulnerable residents.

The safety and welfare of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is our utmost priority. We recognise that providing care placements for them is a national issue that requires participation from local authorities across the UK. We continue to work alongside other government departments, devolved administrations, and local authority representatives, to ensure this vulnerable group of children have timely access to the statutory placements that local authorities must provide.

Local authorities receive funding to support Children’s Social Care through the Local Government Finance Settlement, and finance arrangements which apply to the devolved administrations. In addition, the Home Office also provides funding contributions to the costs incurred by local government in looking after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and former UASC care leavers.

The Home Office has also introduced our new Incentivised Funding Programme for 2023-24 which provides £6,000 for every unaccompanied child moved within 5 working days either from a UASC hotel, or from Kent County Council.

The Home Office collects information from individuals seeking asylum for the purpose of progressing asylum claims. When that information affects the type of accommodation an individual may require, that information is also recorded for the purposes of meeting our statutory obligation.

In respect of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children, responsibility to accommodate them sits with the local authority and they are required to collate appropriate safeguarding information for each child in their care.

All unaccompanied asylum-seeking children receive a welfare interview on arrival in the UK.

Young people who were placed in emergency interim hotels which were operated by the Home Office had additional standard information collected from them to ensure that referrals or actions required due to any identified safeguarding concerns or issues could be made, including notifying the relevant local authority.

Young people in the hotels are supported by team leaders and support workers who are on site 24 hours a day. Further care is provided in hotels by teams of social workers and nurses.

The safety and wellbeing of those in our care is our primary concern. We have safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all young people in hotels are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with a local authority.

Young people are supported by team leaders and support workers who are on site 24 hours a day. Further care is provided in hotels by teams of social workers and nurses. All contingency sites have security staff on site and providers liaise closely with local police to ensure the welfare and safety of vulnerable residents.

Since July 2021, when unaccompanied asylum seeking children were first accommodated in hotels, there have been 447 missing episodes (the term episode used as some children have gone missing been located and subsequently gone missing again). 186 of these young people are still missing.

This is based on local management information and therefore liable to change.

If a young person goes missing from a care setting, including a UASC hotel, the MARS (Missing After Reasonable Steps) protocol is followed. A multi-agency, missing persons meeting is chaired by the local authority to establish the young person's whereabouts and to ensure that they are safe. When used correctly, similar protocols within police forces have safely reduced the number of missing episodes from placements by 36%.

The Home Office work with the police and local authorities to ensure the children in our care are safe and the Police are responsible for locating any missing children.

The safety and wellbeing of those in our care is our primary concern. We have safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all young people in hotels are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with a local authority.

Young people are supported by team leaders and support workers who are on site 24 hours a day. Further care is provided in hotels by teams of social workers and nurses. All contingency sites have security staff on site and providers liaise closely with local police to ensure the welfare and safety of vulnerable residents.

Since July 2021, when unaccompanied asylum seeking children were first accommodated in hotels, there have been 447 missing episodes (the term episode used as some children have gone missing been located and subsequently gone missing again). 186 of these young people are still missing.

This is based on local management information and therefore liable to change.

If a young person goes missing from a care setting, including a UASC hotel, the MARS (Missing After Reasonable Steps) protocol is followed. A multi-agency, missing persons meeting is chaired by the local authority to establish the young person's whereabouts and to ensure that they are safe. When used correctly, similar protocols within police forces have safely reduced the number of missing episodes from placements by 36%.

The Home Office work with the police and local authorities to ensure the children in our care are safe and the Police are responsible for locating any missing children.

Over the last few years, the United Kingdom has opened up its hearts and homes to hundreds of thousands of people from Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Hong Kong and provided refuge and sanctuary to many children in that process, but the reports that we have read about are concerning. Local authorities have a statutory duty to protect all children regardless of where they go missing from, and in that situation they work closely with local agencies, including the police, to establish their whereabouts. That is why it is so important that we end the use of hotels for unaccompanied asylum seekers and reduce pressure on the overall system. That is what our plans will do.

The National Transfer Scheme never stopped. I am very grateful for the ongoing assistance of many local authorities. In 2020, the National Transfer Scheme (NTS) placed 480 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children into local authority placements across the UK.

We recently consulted on a more sustainable long-term future model for the NTS designed to ensure unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are placed in an equitable and fair manner in local authorities across the UK.

I am grateful to local authorities for their thoughtful and considered consultation responses. We received over 200 responses, including some which captured the views and experiences of young people. It is crucial that we get the new scheme right. We are carefully considering the responses and working through the issues raised with local government partners. We are aiming to deliver the new scheme as soon as possible.

Legislation is clear about the statutory duties placed on local authorities in caring for unaccompanied children. Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 imposes a duty on local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need in their area and to accommodate them if they meet the relevant criteria for requiring accommodation under section 20 of the Children Act 1989.

As far as the department is aware, two local authorities have been unable to fulfil these duties to unaccompanied asylum seeking children under the Children Act 1989 since 2010, both in 2020, with one ongoing in 2021. We have been working with both councils to support them to meet their duties to unaccompanied asylum seeking children. The government has also worked with local authorities across the country to secure alternative placements for children and young people arriving in these local authorities.

An unaccompanied asylum seeking child will become looked after by the local authority after having been accommodated by that local authority under section 20 of the Children Act 1989 for 24 hours. This will mean that the local authority has the same statutory duties towards them as to any other looked after child.

Local authorities supporting high numbers of unaccompanied asylum seeking children in proportion to their child population have, since 2016, been able to refer children to the National Transfer Scheme if they are concerned about their capacity to meet their statutory duties towards them as looked after children. A place will then be sought for those children with another local authority that will take on statutory duties for them. Statistics on transfers made through the National Transfer Scheme are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-transparency-data-february-2020.

A rapid review of asylum accommodation came out of a series of Cabinet Office Covid-19 taskforce visits to asylum accommodation and a recommendation that the Home Office conduct a ‘deep dive’ on our approach to initial accommodation during Covid.

The Home Office is reviewing the recommendations of the rapid review and, as previously stated, will seek to publish a summary of the recommendations. We will also hold round tables with stakeholders to discuss the recommendations, actions taken and proposed next steps.

The Napier Barracks and Penally training camp sites have been in operation for almost three months. They are fit for purpose, safe and equipped in line with existing contractual requirements for asylum accommodation. We continue to work closely with our provider and partners to identify opportunities for improvement, as we do across our entire accommodation estate.

A rapid review of asylum accommodation came out of a series of Cabinet Office Covid-19 taskforce visits to asylum accommodation and a recommendation that the Home Office conduct a ‘deep dive’ on our approach to initial accommodation during Covid.

The Home Office is reviewing the recommendations of the rapid review and, as previously stated, will seek to publish a summary of the recommendations. We will also hold round tables with stakeholders to discuss the recommendations, actions taken and proposed next steps.

The Napier Barracks and Penally training camp sites have been in operation for almost three months. They are fit for purpose, safe and equipped in line with existing contractual requirements for asylum accommodation. We continue to work closely with our provider and partners to identify opportunities for improvement, as we do across our entire accommodation estate.

The Home Office publishes data on asylum applications awaiting a decision in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release

Data on the number of people who are awaiting a decision on their asylum application are published in the asylum applications awaiting a decision data table in Asy_D03 of the asylum and resettlement detailed datasets.https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets

Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to as at the end of March 2020.

Additionally, the Home Office publishes a high-level overview of the data in the ‘summary tables’. The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on asylum and resettlement.

Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.

The Home Office takes the wellbeing of asylum seekers extremely seriously and has already put in place a range of measures to support asylum seekers affected by the covid-19 outbreak. In line with the Home Office’s commitment to protect the health and wellbeing of its staff and customers as a top priority, Asylum Operations made the decision to cease face to face substantive asylum interviews with effect from Thursday 19^th March 2020.

This meant that a small number of interviews were cancelled, and no interviews have been scheduled since this date. It is not possible to say how many interviews would have taken place had the pandemic not occurred.

Asylum Operations have secured a mobile digital and video interviewing solution to support remote interviewing and are working with delivery partners, to enable the use of this technology. We remain committed to restarting substantive asylum interviews as soon we can establish a process that allows the participants - applicants, representatives, interpreters and interviewers - to do so safely.

The Home Office takes the wellbeing of asylum seekers extremely seriously and has already put in place a range of measures to support asylum seekers affected by the covid-19 outbreak. In line with the Home Office’s commitment to protect the health and wellbeing of its staff and customers as a top priority, Asylum Operations made the decision to cease face to face substantive asylum interviews with effect from Thursday 19^th March 2020.

This meant that a small number of interviews were cancelled, and no interviews have been scheduled since this date. It is not possible to say how many interviews would have taken place had the pandemic not occurred.

Asylum Operations have secured a mobile digital and video interviewing solution to support remote interviewing and are working with delivery partners, to enable the use of this technology. We remain committed to restarting substantive asylum interviews as soon we can establish a process that allows the participants - applicants, representatives, interpreters and interviewers - to do so safely.

The Home Office takes the wellbeing of asylum seekers extremely seriously and has already put in place a range of measures to support asylum seekers affected by the covid-19 outbreak. In line with the Home Office’s commitment to protect the health and wellbeing of its staff and customers as a top priority, Asylum Operations made the decision to cease face to face substantive asylum interviews with effect from Thursday 19^th March 2020.

This meant that a small number of interviews were cancelled, and no interviews have been scheduled since this date. It is not possible to say how many interviews would have taken place had the pandemic not occurred.

Asylum Operations have secured a mobile digital and video interviewing solution to support remote interviewing and are working with delivery partners, to enable the use of this technology. We remain committed to restarting substantive asylum interviews as soon we can establish a process that allows the participants - applicants, representatives, interpreters and interviewers - to do so safely.

The Home Office takes the wellbeing of asylum seekers extremely seriously and has already put in place a range of measures to support asylum seekers affected by the covid-19 outbreak. In line with the Home Office’s commitment to protect the health and wellbeing of its staff and customers as a top priority, Asylum Operations made the decision to cease face to face substantive asylum interviews with effect from Thursday 19^th March 2020.

This meant that a small number of interviews were cancelled, and no interviews have been scheduled since this date. It is not possible to say how many interviews would have taken place had the pandemic not occurred.

Asylum Operations have secured a mobile digital and video interviewing solution to support remote interviewing and are working with delivery partners, to enable the use of this technology. We remain committed to restarting substantive asylum interviews as soon we can establish a process that allows the participants - applicants, representatives, interpreters and interviewers - to do so safely.

The Home Office does not publish data relating to the average time taken to process asylum claims for cases of (a) unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and (b) other cases of acute vulnerability in each month since January 2019.

Data on current performance can be found at tab Asy_10 of the Asylum Transparency Data August 2019 at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-transparency-data-august-2019

We are committed to ensuring that asylum claims are considered without unnecessary delay, to ensure that individuals who need protection are granted asylum as soon as possible and can start to integrate and rebuild their lives, including those granted at appeal.

Whilst steps are taken to increase capacity and focus on process improvements to deliver better quality asylum decisions more efficiently, we have moved away from the 6-month service standard to concentrate on older claims, cases with acute vulnerability and those in receipt of the greatest level of support, including Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC). Additionally, we are prioritising cases where an individual has already received a decision, but a reconsideration is required.

This approach is intended to bring balance back to the asylum system. We have engaged with stakeholders as part of our plans to introduce new service standards. We are considering this valuable insight as we work to shape the new service standards.

Further to my written answer of 23 May, we are making good progress on the resettlement of the 92 refugees referred for resettlement to the UK by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – many of whom have now arrived in the UK. These resettlement places are within existing global resettlement quotas.