Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 6 February (HL4984), when they will publish the guidance on providing 12 months' support to modern slavery victims who hold a positive conclusive grounds decision.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We carefully reviewed the commitment made regarding the provision of 12 months’ support to modern slavery victims with a positive Conclusive Grounds decision and concluded that the Recovery Needs Assessment ensures that necessary support is available to victims with a positive Conclusive Grounds decision for the necessary length of time, including if this is 12 months, or longer. There is therefore no need to specify 12-month support for all individuals in guidance and no current plans to do so.
A total of 10,704 consenting adults in England and Wales received support through the Modern Slavery Victim Care contract during the year ending June 2023, the largest number support for any year since the contract began, and the Government remains committed to supporting victims based on need.
Through Section 65 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, the Government also set out, for the first time in primary legislation, that confirmed victims of modern slavery are eligible for temporary permission to stay in the UK. Depending on the individual circumstances, Temporary Permission to Stay can be granted for 12 months, or more, to confirmed victims of Modern Slavery. This delivers a fair and effective permission to stay process in relation to confirmed victims of modern slavery, allowing those who are cooperating with public authorities in the investigation and/or prosecution of their exploiters to stay in the UK for that purpose.
We do not publish the other data requested.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the past three years, how many victims of modern slavery have qualified for leave to remain to pursue a compensation claim or a criminal case against their traffickers.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We carefully reviewed the commitment made regarding the provision of 12 months’ support to modern slavery victims with a positive Conclusive Grounds decision and concluded that the Recovery Needs Assessment ensures that necessary support is available to victims with a positive Conclusive Grounds decision for the necessary length of time, including if this is 12 months, or longer. There is therefore no need to specify 12-month support for all individuals in guidance and no current plans to do so.
A total of 10,704 consenting adults in England and Wales received support through the Modern Slavery Victim Care contract during the year ending June 2023, the largest number support for any year since the contract began, and the Government remains committed to supporting victims based on need.
Through Section 65 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, the Government also set out, for the first time in primary legislation, that confirmed victims of modern slavery are eligible for temporary permission to stay in the UK. Depending on the individual circumstances, Temporary Permission to Stay can be granted for 12 months, or more, to confirmed victims of Modern Slavery. This delivers a fair and effective permission to stay process in relation to confirmed victims of modern slavery, allowing those who are cooperating with public authorities in the investigation and/or prosecution of their exploiters to stay in the UK for that purpose.
We do not publish the other data requested.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the past three years, how many victims of modern slavery have (1) received support following a recovery needs assessment, (2) received all the support they asked for, and (3) received support for 12 months or more.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We carefully reviewed the commitment made regarding the provision of 12 months’ support to modern slavery victims with a positive Conclusive Grounds decision and concluded that the Recovery Needs Assessment ensures that necessary support is available to victims with a positive Conclusive Grounds decision for the necessary length of time, including if this is 12 months, or longer. There is therefore no need to specify 12-month support for all individuals in guidance and no current plans to do so.
A total of 10,704 consenting adults in England and Wales received support through the Modern Slavery Victim Care contract during the year ending June 2023, the largest number support for any year since the contract began, and the Government remains committed to supporting victims based on need.
Through Section 65 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, the Government also set out, for the first time in primary legislation, that confirmed victims of modern slavery are eligible for temporary permission to stay in the UK. Depending on the individual circumstances, Temporary Permission to Stay can be granted for 12 months, or more, to confirmed victims of Modern Slavery. This delivers a fair and effective permission to stay process in relation to confirmed victims of modern slavery, allowing those who are cooperating with public authorities in the investigation and/or prosecution of their exploiters to stay in the UK for that purpose.
We do not publish the other data requested.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the final report of the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, published on 22 May 2019, and the Interim Guidance for Independent Child Trafficking Guardians, updated on 18 November 2021, how many children and young people who had someone with parental responsibility were supported with one-to-one support from the Independent Child Trafficking Guardians service between January and September; how many young people had support from the Independent Child Trafficking Guardians service continued after their 18th birthday, between January and September; and when they intend to publish evaluations of the tests of those models.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs) operate in two thirds of local authorities across England and Wales, in addition to the statutory support provided to children by local authorities.
ICTGs provide an additional source of advice and support for potentially trafficked children, irrespective of nationality, and somebody to advocate on their behalf to ensure their best interests are reflected in the decision-making of the public authorities involved in their care.
The ICTG service model provides one-to-one support for children with no parental responsibility for them in the UK via an ICTG Direct Worker and an expert ICTG Regional Practice Co-ordinator for children where there is someone with parental responsibility for them in the UK.
The data requested regarding ICTGs for the timeframe specified has not previously been published and has not yet been verified. We are therefore unable to release the information at this time.
Data tables published in November 2021 in the UK Annual Report on Modern Slavery: 2021 UK Annual Report on Modern Slavery (accessible version) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab) show the numbers of children referred to Direct Workers and Regional Practice Coordinators, broken down by region, in 2019 and 2020.
To date, two evaluations on the ICTG service have been published: An evaluation of Independent Child Trafficking Guardians - early adopter sites: Final report - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and An assessment of Independent Child Trafficking Guardians - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
There are currently no plans to publish the evaluation report of changes to the ICTG service from the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many children and young people who were supported by the Independent Child Trafficking Guardian service between January and September had experienced (1) sexual exploitation, (2) criminal exploitation, (3) labour exploitation, and (4) domestic servitude.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs) operate in two thirds of local authorities across England and Wales, in addition to the statutory support provided to children by local authorities.
ICTGs provide an additional source of advice and support for potentially trafficked children, irrespective of nationality, and somebody to advocate on their behalf to ensure their best interests are reflected in the decision-making of the public authorities involved in their care.
The ICTG service model provides one-to-one support for children with no parental responsibility for them in the UK via an ICTG Direct Worker and an expert ICTG Regional Practice Co-ordinator for children where there is someone with parental responsibility for them in the UK.
The data requested regarding ICTGs for the timeframe specified has not previously been published and has not yet been verified. We are therefore unable to release the information at this time.
Data tables published in November 2021 in the UK Annual Report on Modern Slavery: 2021 UK Annual Report on Modern Slavery (accessible version) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab) show the numbers of children referred to Direct Workers and Regional Practice Coordinators, broken down by region, in 2019 and 2020.
To date, two evaluations on the ICTG service have been published: An evaluation of Independent Child Trafficking Guardians - early adopter sites: Final report - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and An assessment of Independent Child Trafficking Guardians - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
There are currently no plans to publish the evaluation report of changes to the ICTG service from the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many children and young people were supported by the Independent Child Trafficking Guardian service between January and September; and, of those, how many (1) were supported by a direct worker, and (2) were under the oversight of a Regional Practice Coordinator.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs) operate in two thirds of local authorities across England and Wales, in addition to the statutory support provided to children by local authorities.
ICTGs provide an additional source of advice and support for potentially trafficked children, irrespective of nationality, and somebody to advocate on their behalf to ensure their best interests are reflected in the decision-making of the public authorities involved in their care.
The ICTG service model provides one-to-one support for children with no parental responsibility for them in the UK via an ICTG Direct Worker and an expert ICTG Regional Practice Co-ordinator for children where there is someone with parental responsibility for them in the UK.
The data requested regarding ICTGs for the timeframe specified has not previously been published and has not yet been verified. We are therefore unable to release the information at this time.
Data tables published in November 2021 in the UK Annual Report on Modern Slavery: 2021 UK Annual Report on Modern Slavery (accessible version) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab) show the numbers of children referred to Direct Workers and Regional Practice Coordinators, broken down by region, in 2019 and 2020.
To date, two evaluations on the ICTG service have been published: An evaluation of Independent Child Trafficking Guardians - early adopter sites: Final report - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and An assessment of Independent Child Trafficking Guardians - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
There are currently no plans to publish the evaluation report of changes to the ICTG service from the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding on 13 September (HC197778), how specifically the £37 million Modern Slavery Fund has been spent.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the National Referral Mechanism data for January to March 2023, what is the breakdown of positive reasonable grounds decisions for adults and children by (1) month, (2) the number of British nationals, and (3) the number of non-British nationals.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics regarding the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The Q1 2023 statistics can be found here;
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1154119/modern-slavery-national-referral-mechanism-statistics-uk-quarter-1-2023-january-to-march-tables.ods
The data shows the number of duty to notify notices (DTN) received from January to March 2023 and the number of reasonable grounds decisions made per quarter.
Further disaggregated data which shows nationality and whether the potential victim was an adult or child at the time of exploitation is published via the UK Data Service.
The DTN data related to April 2023 will be part of the Q2 statistics which is due to be published in August 2023.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many duty-to-notify notices were received for potential victims of modern slavery between 7 March and 30 April this year compared to the same period in 2022.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics regarding the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The Q1 2023 statistics can be found here;
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1154119/modern-slavery-national-referral-mechanism-statistics-uk-quarter-1-2023-january-to-march-tables.ods
The data shows the number of duty to notify notices (DTN) received from January to March 2023 and the number of reasonable grounds decisions made per quarter.
Further disaggregated data which shows nationality and whether the potential victim was an adult or child at the time of exploitation is published via the UK Data Service.
The DTN data related to April 2023 will be part of the Q2 statistics which is due to be published in August 2023.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by the Minister of State (Minister for Immigration) at the Home Office on (1) 28 March (HC Deb col 961), and (2) 29 March (HC Deb col 308WH), what evidence they are using for the abuse of the modern slavery system.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
On 7 March 2023 the Government published research and analysis on modern slavery referrals for people detained for return after arriving in the UK on small boats. That report can be found at: Modern slavery referrals for people detained for return after arriving in the UK on small boats - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Home Office reports also show that NRM referrals from detention and prison have increased. In 2020, 27% (1,005) of people detained within the UK following immigration offences were referred as potential victims of modern slavery.
Almost everyone referred from detention into the NRM was subsequently released from detention (99.5%, for detentions between Jan 2019 and Sep 2022).
The NRM referral rate for people arriving in the UK on small boats and being detained for return has risen from 6% (50) of detentions ending in 2019 to 73% (294) in 2021.
It is right that the Government has a proactive approach to addressing instances in which the system is not being used as intended.