Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of centralising the modern slavery unit on the responsiveness of services to local policing needs in (a) Devon and (b) Cornwall.

The Government is committed to tackling modern slavery and ensuring that law enforcement agencies have the tools and capabilities they need to prevent, disrupt and bring offenders to justice.

The department provided dedicated funding to the Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime (MSOIC) Programme between 2016/17 and 2025/2026, which was hosted by Devon and Cornwall Police. The MSOIC Programme closed in March 2026. In its final year of funding, under the Ministerial Modern Slavery Action Plan for 2025/26, the MSOIC Programme focused on capturing expertise and lessons learned from 8 years of the Programme through the development of a framework for investigating modern slavery.

This framework provides a nationally consistent, evidence-based framework to support forces, equipping officers with guidance, training and practical tools to navigate these complex crimes, respond effectively to local threats, and strengthen local policing capability through the sharing of best practice. The guidance materials have been made available to all police forces in England and Wales, including Devon and Cornwall Police, via an online knowledge hub and the materials have also been incorporated into the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice.

The Home Office has worked closely with partners to ensure that all forces are equipped to tackle modern slavery effectively in their areas and will continue to build on the work of the programme, alongside wider police reforms, to strengthen the operational response at both national and local levels.