Children in Care Trafficking, Slavery and Missing

“Please provide:-

1. The total number of looked after children in the care of your authority that have been:

a. Identified as having been trafficked or a victim of modern slavery ‘ including, but not limited to, those identified through the National Referral Mechanism.

We are unable to disclose this information under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – ‘Cost of Compliance’.  This is because the requested information is not recorded centrally.  In order to locate, extract and retrieve this data, each of the 700+ child in care files would need to be reviewed individually.  On a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per file, we estimate that this would take in the region of 58 hours to complete which is well in excess of the 18 hours public authorities are required to spend responding to FOI requests.

b. Suspected of having been a victim of trafficking or modern slavery, if not included in a.  

We are unable to disclose this information under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – ‘Cost of Compliance’.  This is because the requested information is not recorded centrally.  In order to locate, extract and retrieve this data, each of the 700+ child in care files would need to be reviewed individually.  On a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per file, we believe that this would take in the region of 58 hours to complete which is well in excess of the 18 hours public authorities are required to spend responding to FOI requests.

c. Identified as an unaccompanied asylum seeking child (UASC) or a separated child.

21 Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children as at the end of March 2019.

2. The total number of looked after children in the care of your authority:

a. Identified or suspected as having been trafficked/victim of modern slavery and that have gone missing or absent.

We are unable to disclose this information under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – ‘Cost of Compliance’.  This is because the requested information is not recorded centrally.  In order to locate, extract and retrieve this data, each of the 700+ child in care files would need to be reviewed individually.  On a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per file, we believe that this would take in the region of 58 hours to complete which is well in excess of the 18 hours public authorities are required to spend responding to FOI requests.

b. Identified as an UASC or separated child and that have gone missing or absent.

We hold this information but as disclosure may identify individuals and breach the First Principle of the Data Protection Act 2018, we consider the information is exempt under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 Section 40(2) Personal Data.

3. The total number of individual incidents (which could involve the same child on more than one occasion) of looked after children in the care of your authority:

a. Identified or suspected as having been trafficked/victim of modern slavery and that have gone missing or absent.

We hold this information but as disclosure may identify individuals and breach the First Principle of the Data Protection Act 2018, we consider the information is exempt under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 Section 40(2) Personal Data.

b. Identified as an UASC or separated child and that have gone missing or absent.

We hold this information but as disclosure may identify individuals and breach the First Principle of the Data Protection Act 2018, we consider the information is exempt under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 Section 40(2) Personal Data.

4. The total number of looked after children in the care of your authority that are still missing or absent (including those that subsequently turned 18 without being found) that were identified or suspected as having been trafficked or identified as an UASC or separated child.

We hold this information but as disclosure may identify individuals and breach the First Principle of the Data Protection Act 2018, we consider the information is exempt under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 Section 40(2) Personal Data.