§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the action taken by Her Majesty's Government on the problem of runaway children since the statement to the House by the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Wycombe (Mr. Whitney), on 27 March 1986, Official Report, columns 1137–42.
§ Mrs. CurrieThe Department has continued to provide some professional and revenue support to the Central London Teenage Project, a safe house run by the Children's Society, which offers short-term accommodation, care and counselling to young people who run away to London. A £20,000 grant was paid in 1986–87 and a grant of the same level has been approved for 1987–88.
The White Paper on The Law on Child Care arid Family Services, Cm. 62, proposes that certain specified organisations who look after children who have run away should, in defined circumstances, be exempt from liability for an offence of detaining or harbouring a child.