85 Accepted

Access to records for former child migrants

IICSA · Child Migration Programmes Investigation Report · Issued 1 March 2018 · Addressed to: Child Migration Institutions

Source — verbatim from the inquiry

Inquiry recommendation, H

The Chair and Panel have recommended that all institutions which sent children abroad as part of the child migration programmes should ensure that they have robust systems in place for retaining and preserving any remaining records that may contain information about individual child migrants, and should provide easy access to them.

IICSA, Child Migration Programmes Investigation Report · 1 Mar 2018

Published evidence summary

Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:

- Between January and July 2020, multiple institutions that sent children abroad under migration programmes, including Action for Children, Barnardo's, Catholic Church, Cornwall Council and the Salvation Army, stated that they had systems in place for retaining and providing access to records (Government Response, Various Institutions, January-July 2020).
- In May 2023, the government noted that most named institutions had responded to this recommendation (Government Response to IICSA Final Report, HM Government, May 2023).
- No published independent audit of whether all named institutions have robust record retention systems in place as specified has been identified to March 2026.

Response — verbatim from government

UK Government

Between January and July 2020, Action for Children, Barnardo's, Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cornwall Council, Father Hudson's Care, Salvation Army UK, Sisters of Nazareth, The Children's Society and The Prince's Trust committed to retaining and preserving remaining child migrant records.

UK Government · 22 May 2023 Written response →

Evidence trail — what's actually happened since

No published activity has been recorded against this recommendation yet.

Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.

How this page is built

Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.

This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.