Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answers of 2 February 2015 to Questions 221907 and 221908 if he will review the provision of legal aid to potential victims of human trafficking in advance of their referral to the UK national referral mechanism.

Provision of legal aid to victims of human trafficking in immigration matters is an exception to the general removal of immigration matters from the scope of civil legal aid, and one that we have extended to all victims of modern slavery through the Modern Slavery Bill. Applicants are required to have engaged in the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) process, which also provides specialist accommodation and support, to the point that a positive reasonable grounds or conclusive determination has been made, in order to ensure that limited resources are made available in the cases parliament identified as justifying public support.

A review of the NRM, published in November 2014, recommended a range of changes to the current system including changes to align the referral process and the reasonable grounds decision. The point of access to legal aid will be considered as part of our wider consideration and piloting of the NRM review recommendations.