Commentary on provisions of the Act Section 18: Duty of local authority to provide information to the Secretary of State
This section enables the Secretary of State to direct local authorities in England to provide information about the accommodation and support provided to children in their care (or other information as may be specified in regulations (subject to the negative procedure). This will inform arrangements made for the transfer of particular unaccompanied migrant children from the Secretary of State to that local authority or vice versa. The Secretary of State may specify the form, manner and timescales in which a local authority must provide such information.
	The policy intention is to ensure there is a legal framework to allow for the sensible flow of information that would be relevant to a child transferring to and from local authority care. This is akin to existing arrangements already set out in section 70 of the 2016 Act for the operation of the NTS.