Age assessments: what happens when a child arrives in the UK? 

The majority of unaccompanied children who enter the UK to seek asylum do not bring with them evidence of their age. Because of this, the Home Office has a duty to carry out an initial assessment of their age to establish whether they are, or could be, children.

The Home Office does not publish statistics regarding children who are wrongly assessed as adults on arrival nor regarding the number of initial age assessments which are later overturned.

However, for years, third sector organisations have been gathering and publishing evidence and statistics on these decisions. Last year, a report published by Helen Bamber, Humans For Rights Network and Refugee Council showed that between January 2022 and June 2023 over 1,300 children were wrongly assessed as adults by the Home Office. More recently, an updated report published by the Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium showed that between January 2024 and June 2024, at least 262 children were misclassified as adults by the Home Office on arrival.

Why is this important?

The initial age assessment stage in the asylum process is crucial. If a young person is found to be an adult on arrival, they will be assigned a date of birth making them over 18 and they will be dispersed in adult accommodation and treated as adults from that point onwards. The consequences of this can be catastrophic for children who are wrongly assessed as adults by the Home Office.

If a young person is found to be an adult, they will not be referred to a local authority. Instead, they will be accommodated in adult accommodation, which is mostly hotel accommodation, and be left with very little support. Courts have found the practice of accommodating unaccompanied children in hotels to be unlawful. However, children wrongfully assessed as adults continue to be accommodated in hotels.

This puts children at serious risk as there are little to no safeguarding procedures in place in adult accommodation. One of the key risks is re-trafficking, as highlighted in a report published by Every Child Protected Against Trafficking last year which found that unaccompanied children placed in adult accommodation face increased risks of re-trafficking and exploitation. At JustRight Scotland, we routinely assist children who, after being wrongly assessed as adults and being accommodated in adult Home Office accommodation in England, are later re-trafficked to Scotland. This could be prevented if children were referred to local authorities by the Home Office and accommodated in adequate, safe accommodation as soon as they arrive. 

A second major concern is that children who are wrongly assessed as adults are treated as such by the Home Office and are liable to be detained and removed to France under the UK-France agreement. Whilst unaccompanied children are excluded from this, children wrongly assessed as adults on arrival are not and the Home Office have already tried to remove a number of young people who had stated they were under 18 on arrival to the UK.  In other words, the difference between a child being assessed as a child or being wrongly assessed as an adult can be the difference between them being able to remain in the UK or face detention and removal.

A third concern is that children who are wrongfully assessed as adults are also at risk of being convicted of crimes around illegal entry under the Nationality and Borders Act 2022. Humans for Rights Network have reported that between June 2022 and September 2024, at least 26 children wrongly assessed as adults were charged with these offences, with a number of them being detained in adult prisons as a result.

Lastly, there are a number of safeguards in place for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children which children wrongly assessed as adults miss out on. Under the streamlined policy, the Home Office should avoid lengthy substantive interviews, where possible. Children also have the right to have an appropriate adult and legal representative present during interviews and the Home Office staff dealing with these cases are all trained in handling children’s cases.

When determining children’s claims, decision makers also need to be mindful of the applicant’s age when assessing their credibility. This is reflected in the Home Office statistics. In the year ending June 2025, 73% of initial asylum decisions resulted in a grant of protection for unaccompanied children, compared to 47% in applications made by adults. This shows that unaccompanied children accepted by the Home Office as children are significantly more likely to obtain protection in the UK.

Home Office initial age assessment process

As soon as a separated child enters the UK, the Home Office will carry out an initial age assessment to establish whether they are, or could be, a child. This process is fairly arbitrary. Essentially, two Home Office members of staff will look at the child and decide whether, based on their appearance and demeanour, they think that they could be a child.

Under the Home Office guidance, there are very few safeguards in place at this stage. All that is needed is for two officers (one of whom needs to be a Chief Immigration Officer or Higher Executive Officer) to agree on an initial decision that the child presents as significantly over 18 for them to be able to assess them as an adult. Unhelpfully, no social worker needs to be present during this assessment.

This is particularly concerning when thinking about the point in time in which these assessments are carried out. In most cases, young people will go through these initial assessments as soon as they enter the country. This will follow weeks, if not months, of being malnourished, sleep deprived and very often having been subject to physical and psychological abuse during their journey.  Whilst the Home Office guidance acknowledges that there is a wide margin of error at this stage, in practice it is hard to see how all of these factors can be taken into account when the assessment itself is solely based on the young person’s presentation.

This practice, and the policy behind it, has long been criticised by third sector and civil society organisations drawing attention to the high number of children wrongly classified as adults as a result. Home Office initial age assessments were also recently criticised by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration in his July report. As explored by Stewart here, the report highlighted poor quality decision making by Immigration Officers as well as poor record keeping. Some particularly concerning practices included adversarial lines of questioning and young people reportedly being pressured to sign declarations stating to be over 18.

If a young person is found to be an adult following an initial assessment by the Home Office, they will be assigned a date of birth that makes them an adult. This decision does not attract a right of appeal (albeit it can be challenged by way of judicial review). The only other way for children who are wrongly assessed as adults to have their age reassessed is for them to be referred to a local authority by, for instance, their legal representative or a supporting organisation. This essentially puts the onus on the young person and those assisting them to refer the case to a local authority.

If the initial decision made by the Home Office is not challenged and the child is not referred to a local authority, they will be treated as an adult throughout the asylum process.

Duties of local authorities & full age assessments

Once a referral is received which reports that an unaccompanied child is in their area, a local authority has a duty to carry out their own enquiries to establish whether the young person is, or could be, a child. The duty to carry out such enquiries applies even in cases where the Home Office has made a negative initial age assessment decision. Where a local authority refuses to engage with a young person simply on the basis of a Home Office initial age assessment decision, there could be a potential breach of their duties under section 20 of the Children Act 1989 (section 25 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 in Scotland).

If, following these enquiries, a local authority finds that the young person is, or could be, a child, they will need to be taken into care and accommodated. Once the young person is in care, the local authority can decide to simply accept their age. Where this happens, under the Home Office guidance, the local authority will need to inform the Home Office of their decision to accept the young person’s age and give their reasoning. If the Home Office is satisfied with the decision, they will then proceed to also treat them as an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child.

If a local authority, after the young person has been taken into care, still has significant doubt regarding their age they can decide to conduct a full age assessment.

Full age assessments have been the subject of litigation for over twenty years now. However, the leading case is still  R (B) v Merton [2003] EWHC 1689 (Admin). Local authorities in England should also follow the non-statutory guidance published by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services when conducting full age assessments. The equivalent guidance in Scotland is here.

Again, once a full age assessment has been conducted, under Home Office guidance, the local authority will need to share the decision with the Home Office and normally the outcome will be accepted and implemented by them.

Until the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 came into force, full age assessments were solely the responsibility of local authorities. However, through the Act the Home Office introduced the National Age Assessment Board, which became operational on 31 March 2023. The Board consists of social workers employed directly by the Home Office to carry out full age assessments.

The board is mostly responsible for carrying out full age assessments where a local authority makes a referral to them, for example due to limited capacity or expertise. Nevertheless, the Home Office can also make referrals to the board in cases where a decision made by a local authority is not accepted. This can apply, for instance, where a local authority has accepted a child’s age without carrying out a full age assessment or also where a full age assessment decision is disputed by the Home Office.  

Concerns have been raised, including by the British Association of Social Workers, regarding the objectivity of the board and the potential conflict of interest with the Home Office.

In summary, even under the new changes and following the introduction of the National Age Assessment Board, local authorities are still responsible for carrying out most full age assessments and establish the age of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in their care.  

Conclusion

Age assessments are complex and assessing someone’s age accurately can be a very difficult task. The UK Government has been looking at this area intensively over the last few years. Beyond the introduction of the National Age Assessment Board, proposed reforms have included the introductions of scientific methods and, more recently, the used of facial age estimation through artificial intelligence.  These proposals have been subject to strong criticism and, if implemented, are likely to face legal challenges.

This is a complex and fast-moving area of work that immigration practitioners can be understandably anxious about. Nevertheless, it is important for legal representatives to support young people with these matters. Whether a young person is accepted as a child by the Home Office or not could represent the difference between them being detained and removed from the UK or being able to remain, and be looked after and supported by their local authority. A young person’s recorded date of birth will also determine what financial support, accommodation, and education they can have access to in the UK.

As such it is crucial that, when assisting an age-disputed young person, legal representatives ensure that the case is referred to the local authority and that the young person is adequately supported and advised throughout the age assessment process, which, in complex cases, can last months or even years.

This article was originally published in July 2023 and has been updated by Francesca Sella so that it is correct as of the new date of publication shown.