FOI release

Child Asylum Seekers misidentified as Adults

Some or all of the information requested was not provided because we determined that the cost to do so would exceed the appropriate limit.

Case reference FOI2023/01598

Published 30 October 2023

Request

I would be grateful if you could please provide the following information:

* In January to June 2023, how many individuals claiming to be children (aged under 18) were referred to your children's services department having previously been assessed to be an adult by the Home Office and placed in adult asylum accommodation or detention?

* Of those referred, how many were subsequently assessed by your children's services department to be under 18?

Response

I would be grateful if you could please provide the following information:

* In January to June 2023, how many individuals claiming to be children (aged under 18) were referred to your children's services department having previously been assessed to be an adult by the Home Office and placed in adult asylum accommodation or detention?

* Of those referred, how many were subsequently assessed by your children's services department to be under 18?

This information is not held in a form that would enable it to be located, retrieved and extracted within the Appropriate Time Limit which equates to 18 hours as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limits and Fees) Regulations 2004.

For Question 1, our electronic reporting systems are unable to run a report for this information. To ascertain the data requested, officers would need to manually check individual files for this information. An initial search has shown that 1,327 files would need to be checked for this information, and it is estimated that it would take 5 minutes to check each file. Once the details had been identified this would need to be noted and once all files had been checked in this way, the total figures requested could be calculated, etc.

This would at a conservative estimate take at least 110 hours to complete. Where the Limit is exceeded Public Authorities are not obliged to supply the information requested by virtue of S12 of the Act. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.

However, within the 18 hour limit, we can provide the answer to Question 2 if required. Please advise us if this is something you require.

Documents

There are no documents for this release.

This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.

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