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Written Question
Human Trafficking: Prosecutions
Thursday 25th May 2023

Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people have been (1) prosecuted, and (2) convicted, for offences of people smuggling under the Immigration Act 1971, for each of the past five years.

Answered by Lord Stewart of Dirleton - Advocate General for Scotland

The Immigration Act 1971 contains offences (including those created by the Nationality and Borders Act 2022) for assisting and facilitating unlawful immigration into the United Kingdom.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold any data which shows the number of defendants in England and Wales charged with, prosecuted and convicted for people smuggling offences created by the Immigration Act 1971.

However, management information for England and Wales is held showing the number of offences charged by way of S25 (Assisting unlawful immigration to member State or the United Kingdom), S25A (Helping an asylum-seeker to enter United Kingdom) and S25B (Assisting entry to United Kingdom in breach of deportation or exclusion order) of the Immigration Act 1971 in which a prosecution commenced in each of the last five years. The table below shows the number of these offences to the latest available year, 2022, in England and Wales.

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Immigration Act 1971 {25}

309

291

139

249

155

Immigration Act 1971 {25A}

8

5

2

134

6

Immigration Act 1971 {25B}

1

0

0

5

0

Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System

The figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants. It can be the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence against the same complainant. No data is held showing the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.


Written Question
Human Trafficking: Prosecutions
Thursday 25th May 2023

Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask His Majesty's Government, how many people have been (1) prosecuted, and (2) convicted, for offences of human trafficking in the Modern Slavery Act 2015, for each of the past five years.

Answered by Lord Stewart of Dirleton - Advocate General for Scotland

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds no data showing the number of convictions for human trafficking offences in England and Wales under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

However, data is held showing the number of defendants prosecuted and convicted where the human trafficking monitoring flag has been applied to case records. The table below shows the number of prosecutions and convictions for defendants during each of the last five years in England and Wales.

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Prosecuted

294

349

267

466

405

Convicted

191

251

197

332

282

Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System