Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of existing legislation governing massage parlours in preventing modern slavery, human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

The trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation is a truly horrific crime, including where exploitation has taken place under the guise of legitimate businesses, such as massage parlours. We are determined to safeguard victims and to bring the ruthless perpetrators of this crime to justice.

In December 2025, the Government committed within the “Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls”, to address many aspects of prostitution and sexual exploitation within England and Wales. Commitments include reviewing legislation, raising awareness among frontline agencies of what constitutes adult sexual exploitation, and strengthening police disruption of sexual exploitation. Further details on each of these commitments will be announced in due course.

The Government is working closely with law enforcement to tackle the drivers of trafficking for sexual exploitation, including through operational activity aimed at tackling modern slavery threats, and targeting prolific perpetrators.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council have developed a new framework for investigating modern slavery and includes a suite of products to guide forces to identify and tackle sexual exploitation. The framework provides a nationally consistent investigative framework to sustain progress and support forces in delivering a strong, evidence-based response to modern slavery, including sexual exploitation. This will further equip officers with practical tools for navigating modern slavery crimes and fill critical gaps in frontline knowledge to drive performance and support greater accountability.

We will work closely with the new National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Modern Slavery and police forces across England and Wales to support a strong, coordinated approach to ensuring that modern slavery is effectively identified, disrupted, and tackled.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is responsible for licensing arrangements for local authorities, and it would be for the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to determine whether those powers are adequate. We will continue to work closely across government to ensure there is a coordinated response to modern slavery and human trafficking.