Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure a coordinated national policing response to modern slavery, in the context of the removal of funding for the Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Unit.

Modern slavery crimes are complex to investigate and prosecute, and ensuring a consistent and coordinated national policing response to modern slavery remains a priority for the Home Office.

The Department has been working closely with the Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Unit (MSOICU) and the National Crime Agency (NCA) to review the programme’s functions and agree contingency arrangements to ensure key functions are preserved to maintain national coordination following the programme’s closure.

This includes an issuing an expression of interest to appoint a new National Police Chief Council (NPCC) lead for modern slavery to continue to provide national leadership on the policing response to modern slavery. Once appointed, the Home Office will work closely with the NPCC lead to ensure modern slavery remains a policing priority and will continue to provide policy oversight of the operational response.

As part of the wider police reforms, national strategic policing priorities will be developed to improve policing standards and performance. The Home Office will consider how modern slavery measures can be reflected within these.