FOI Request - Missing People

Request 101003848688

I am writing to make an open government request for information to which I am entitled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please provide the following information for the period 1 January 2024 – 31 December 2024.

1. How many individual children (those aged 0 – 17) were reported missing in your local authority area?

2. How many missing incidents were reported in relation to those missing children (those aged 0 – 17)?

3. How many of those missing incidents had a:
a) Sexual exploitation marker
b) Mental health marker
c) Criminal exploitation marker
d) Trafficking marker

4. In how many of those incidents was a return home interview completed?

5. In how many of those return home interviews was there evidence of harm having occurred?

6. In how many of those return home interviews with evidence of harm, was the harm:
a) Physical
b) Sexual
c) Self-harm
d) Suicide
e) Emotional / psychological

7. If you routinely record another type of risk marker / type of harm that is not listed here, please also include that information and the number of incidents in which it was recorded

Response 01-10-2025

1.-7. This information is exempt under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002- excessive costs - as manual checks of individual files would be needed. It is estimated that such checks are likely to take between 15 to 30 minutes per file; with over 500 files needing to be checked, therefore it would go over the £600 cost limitation.
Furthermore, it was noted that not all missing children would be known to the Council, as such, we would recommend contacting Police Scotland as they may have a central and/or electronic record of missing children.