System for recording missing children is "dangerous"

At least 10,000 children a year could be at ‘terrible risk’ because they receive no active police response when they go missing, according to a report out today.

The inquiry by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Runaway and Missing Children and Adults is supported by The Children’s Society. It calls for a police recording system for missing children, introduced in 2013, to be abandoned because it does not safeguard children from harm.

Under the two-tier system, children are classed as either ‘missing’ or ‘absent’ - but crucially only a child classed as missing receives an active police response.

The inquiry has been chaired by the Labour MP for Stockport Ann Coffey.It heard that children who go missing, but are classified by the police as absent, slip under services’ radar until the risks, such as child sexual exploitation, become too serious.