Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham Yardley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 14 December 2022 to Question 11027 on Slavery, in what way her Department's new guidance and policy on consideration of evidence differ from what happened previously.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The updated Reasonable Grounds Guidance is expected to be published on 30 January 2023 as part of the Modern Slavery: Statutory Guidance for England and Wales (under s49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015) and Non-Statutory Guidance for Scotland and Northern Ireland. This will contain details of what constitutes an objective factor and how decision makers will use the guidance to consider all referrals, including child victims of sexual exploitation.
We also believe that this builds on and simplifies much of the current guidance to ensure decision making at the Reasonable Grounds stage is robust and consistent while still providing scope to consider instances where a referral may be received with very little additional information.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham Yardley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Written Statement by the Minister of State for Immigration of 13 December on Update to Modern Slavery Statutory Guidance, HCWS441, what her definition is of objective factors; and how she expects this to affect decisions by case workers.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The updated Reasonable Grounds guidance will mean decision makers now base their assessments on objective factors to determine whether there are reasonable grounds to believe a person is a victim.
An “objective” factor is a piece of information or evidence that is based in fact. This will ensure that decision makers can make timely and robust evidence-backed decisions and that assistance and support are focused on those who most need it.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham Yardley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what is her Department's target timescale for making a Reasonable Grounds decision in the National Referral Mechanism; and what is the current average wait time for a victim of modern slavery to be given a Reasonable Grounds decision.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics regarding the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). These include the average time taken to make a Conclusive Grounds Decision. The latest published NRM statistics can be found here:
National Referral Mechanism statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
As outlined in the Modern Slavery: Statutory Guidance for England and Wales (under s49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015) and Non-Statutory Guidance for Scotland and Northern Ireland, the expectation is that the Competent Authority will make a Reasonable Grounds decision within five working days, where possible, of the NRM referral being received. There is no target to make a Conclusive Grounds decision within a specific timeframe. A decision can only be made fairly and reasonably once sufficient information has been made available to the Competent Authority for it to complete the decision. When the relevant Competent Authority has received sufficient information for it to complete a decision it should seek to do so as soon as possible but only once a minimum Recovery and Reflection Period has passed, unless the relevant Competent Authority has received a request to delay the decision. The Recovery and Reflection period begins when the relevant competent authority makes a positive Reasonable Grounds decision.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham Yardley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what is her Department's target timescale for making a Conclusive Grounds decision in the National Referral Mechanism; and what is the current average wait time for a victim of modern slavery to be given a conclusive grounds decision following a Reasonable Grounds decision.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics regarding the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). These include the average time taken to make a Conclusive Grounds Decision. The latest published NRM statistics can be found here:
National Referral Mechanism statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
As outlined in the Modern Slavery: Statutory Guidance for England and Wales (under s49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015) and Non-Statutory Guidance for Scotland and Northern Ireland, the expectation is that the Competent Authority will make a Reasonable Grounds decision within five working days, where possible, of the NRM referral being received. There is no target to make a Conclusive Grounds decision within a specific timeframe. A decision can only be made fairly and reasonably once sufficient information has been made available to the Competent Authority for it to complete the decision. When the relevant Competent Authority has received sufficient information for it to complete a decision it should seek to do so as soon as possible but only once a minimum Recovery and Reflection Period has passed, unless the relevant Competent Authority has received a request to delay the decision. The Recovery and Reflection period begins when the relevant competent authority makes a positive Reasonable Grounds decision.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham Yardley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 14 November 2022 to Question 80727 on Slavery, if she will publish a list of the National Referral Mechanism first responder agencies which referred people who were found to be exploiting the modern slavery system in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022 as of 7 November 2022; and how many of those cases were brought by each National Referral Mechanism first responder agency.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics regarding the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). These include the average time taken to make a Conclusive Grounds Decision. The latest published NRM statistics can be found here:
National Referral Mechanism statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
As outlined in the Modern Slavery: Statutory Guidance for England and Wales (under s49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015) and Non-Statutory Guidance for Scotland and Northern Ireland, the expectation is that the Competent Authority will make a Reasonable Grounds decision within five working days, where possible, of the NRM referral being received. There is no target to make a Conclusive Grounds decision within a specific timeframe. A decision can only be made fairly and reasonably once sufficient information has been made available to the Competent Authority for it to complete the decision. When the relevant Competent Authority has received sufficient information for it to complete a decision it should seek to do so as soon as possible but only once a minimum Recovery and Reflection Period has passed, unless the relevant Competent Authority has received a request to delay the decision. The Recovery and Reflection period begins when the relevant competent authority makes a positive Reasonable Grounds decision.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham Yardley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which National Referral Mechanism first responder agencies referred people who were found to be exploiting the modern slavery system in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022 as of 7 November 2022; and how many of these cases were brought by each National Referral Mechanism first responder agency.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
As you will be aware, the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the UK’s framework for identifying victims of modern slavery. A First Responder Organisation (FRO) is an authority that is authorised to refer a potential victim of modern slavery into the NRM. Members of staff at those FROs have a responsibility for discharging one or more of the functions of the FRO, including recognising the indicators of modern slavery and identifying potential victims of modern slavery, and subsequently referring those potential victims into the NRM.
Decisions about who is then recognised and confirmed as a victim of modern slavery are made by trained specialists in one of the Home Office competent authorities (Single Competent Authority (SCA) and the Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority (IECA)).
The competent authorities’ assessment of whether an individual is a victim of modern slavery is two-stage process. A competent authority will first make a decision as to whether there is enough evidence available such that it ‘suspects but cannot prove’ that the individual is a victim of modern slavery. This is the reasonable grounds (RG) decision. Where a positive decision is issued the competent authority will then go on to gather further information about the case and then make a second decision on ‘the balance of probabilities’ whether that individual is a victim of modern slavery; this is the conclusive grounds (CG) decision.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham Yardley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the letter dated 27 June 2022 from Lorraine Harris, Area Coroner for Kingston Upon Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire, to the Secretary of State for the Home Department setting out the coroner's recommendations as a result of the inquest into the death of Jessica Louise Laverack and requesting a response by 23 August 2022, for what reason her Department has not responded to the letter.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Home Office responded to the Prevention of Future Death report from Lorraine Harris, Area Coroner for Kingston Upon Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire on the 23 August 2022. We have since followed up with the Coroner’s office to ensure that they received our letter.
It is devastating that some victims of domestic abuse are taking their own lives. Developing the evidence base and interventions for suicides that follow domestic abuse is a key priority for the Home Office. In the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, we committed to continue to a package of measures to better understand and begin to tackle suicides which take place following domestic abuse.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham Yardley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Safeguarding on 5 September, Official Report, column 16, in response to the Question of the hon. Member for Jarrow on Deaths following Domestic Abuse, how many (a) domestic homicides, (b) domestic abuse-related (i) unexplained and (ii) suspicious deaths and (c) suspected suicides of individuals with a known history of domestic abuse victimisation have been recorded in each year since March 2020.
Answered by Sarah Dines
Information on domestic homicides is available on the Home Office Homicide Index. In the year ending March 2021, there were 114 domestic homicides recorded by the police in England and Wales[1].
The Home Office have awarded £733,369 in funding over the last three years to the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and College of Policing working with the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme (VKPP), to track and review all deaths within a domestic setting and share learning rapidly with frontline policing. This Domestic Homicide Project has recorded the number of unexplained deaths as a result of or following domestic abuse and suspected suicides of individuals with a known history of domestic abuse victimisation since 23 March 2020.
From 23 March 2020 - 31 March 2021, the project recorded 39 suspected suicides of individuals aged 16 or over, with a known history of domestic abuse victimisation and 14 unexplained deaths, where the victim was aged 16 or over, and where there was a prior record of domestic abuse involving the victim and/or suspects[2].
[1] Homicide in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
[2] Domestic Homicides and Suspected Victim suicides - Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme