The Bishop of Worcester Rt Revd Dr John Inge is one of the very constructive members of the House of Lords and on Tuesday there was a session called “Children Seeking Asylum” which was opened up by Paul Scriven who is a Liberal Democrat member who was a previously the leader of Sheffield Council. He opened the session and the response came from Benjamin Gascoigne who is a Conservative Minister member. A few minutes after comments from Paul and Benjamin, John Inge raised his question and Benjamin responded to his question. So here is the location for the whole session and here is the first item from Paul Scriven.

Lord Scriven: To ask His Majesty’s Government, in the past two years, how many unaccompanied children seeking asylum aged 12 and under have been placed in hotels while waiting for local authority placement.

Lord Gascoigne: My Lords, the well-being of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is our priority. We maintain that the best place to accommodate these children is in the care of the local authority. From November 2021 to November 2023, 32 unaccompanied children aged 12 and under were temporarily accommodated in hotels, awaiting placement. It is important to clarify that this data has been extracted from live operational databases and is not available in routine published data.

They both commented again and there was a call from Alf Dubs who is Labour and then this question from John Inge took place and a response from Benjamin Gascoigne

The Bishop of Worcester: My Lords, I join others in welcoming the Minister to his place. I note that Kent County Council announced last week that new arrival centres for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are being planned in the area but that the council is waiting for funding from central government. As the Minister said, the right and best place for separated children is under local authority care. What is the timeline for the funding to be issued to support Kent County Council fulfilling its statutory duty, especially given that it is responsible for hundreds more children than the prescribed limit under the national distribution system? We do not want to return to the use of hotels.

Lord Gascoigne: I thank the right reverend Prelate for his question. He will have to forgive me, but I missed the beginning of it. I will take it away and make sure he gets a proper response from the department. He is absolutely right to say that local authority care is the right place for the children in question—we have been very clear about that. I know that the Government have provided funding support to local authorities. If he has specific examples where he feels that that has not been done then I will happily take them away. I am sure that the department is already aware of them.