§ Mr. McCartneyTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many children have been abducted from(a) a parent or other relative with custody, and (b) local authority care to locations (i) in other parts of the United Kingdom and (ii) outside the United Kingdom in the last year for which figures are available.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonDuring 1990 the Secretary of State received eight applications for assistance under the 1980 convention on the civil aspects of international child abduction. These applications related to 11 children of whom it was alleged that three had been wrongfully retained outwith the United Kingdom or abducted from Scotland. Information is not available about how many children were abducted where the abduction constituted a criminal offence under the Child Abduction Act 1984.