To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of teenage prostitutes in (a) Leicester and (b) England (i) in the last 12 months and (ii) in the last 10 years. (208556)

Statutory guidance issued in 2000 on safeguarding children involved in prostitution stated that all Local Safeguarding Children Boards should make arrangements to actively enquire into the extent to which children are involved in prostitution within their local area. This information is not collated centrally. However, research commissioned by the Department of Health in 2002 found that children were known to suffer this form of abuse in 111 of the then 146 Area Child Protection Committee districts, with an average of 19 girls and three boys in each area.