Missing persons could be prevented with new law, MP says

The UK needs new legislation to end the scourge of missing people, a Labour MP has claimed.

Earlier this year, The Mirror launched the Missed campaign in partnership with UK charity, Missing People, which aimed to raise awareness of every publicly-listed missing person in the UK through a live, interactive map.

In the UK alone, 170,000 people go missing each year - 75,000 of them children. That’s one person every 90 seconds. Our campaign is calling for a new strategy for dealing with missing people, for more investment in prevention and greater support when missing people return.

At an event organised by The Mirror at Labour party conference in Liverpool, attendees heard from mum Nerissa Tivy, who said she was ignored by police for two years when her son Alexander went missing 16 years ago, just days before his 17th birthday.
Also speaking was the mother of a missing teenager who was found alive after we highlighted his story as part of our Missed campaign.

READ MORE: How police can help with a missing person case and what to expect

READ MORE: When is a person considered missing? And how long until they're presumed dead

Deante James, 17, went missing on the evening of March 31 from the family home in Enfield, north London, while suffering with psychosis, after unknowingly smoking a joint laced with Spice - a lab-made drug designed to mimic the effects of cannabis. His mum, Vandana Bhogowoth, found him safe six weeks later. British Transport Police had found him three days after he went missing, only to let him go because of an inputting error.

Now Michelle Welch MP, the chair of the APPG for missing children and adults has called for new laws to ensure nobody else is left behind. This could involve guidance, but also a joined up strategy, she suggested.

She said: “I think the fact remains that we need some new legislation around this, that really goes to the root cause of what is happening. I think it’s disgraceful that a vulnerable person can be shoved into a hospital without contacting their next of kin, I think it’s an absolute disgrace you had to beg for help to find your son. I think we need new legislation so those things can’t happen. We need some accountability.

“Society is always a worse place when it doesn’t listen to a mothers intuition. What we’ve heard today is two mothers who clearly know their sons very well, and they weren’t listened to.

“One human life is not worth more than another.”

Susannah Drury, Director of Policy and Development at Missing People, suggested something like the model in Scotland, where they have a national framework spelling out what local authorities, the NHS and third sector organisations should do.

The Mirror is using its platform to run Missed – a campaign to shine a light on underrepresented public-facing missing persons in the UK in collaboration with Missing People Charity. Because every missing person, no matter their background or circumstances, is someone’s loved one. And they are always Missed.