Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to set a target for decision waiting times in the National Referral Mechanism.

We have committed to clearing the backlog of Conclusive Grounds decisions by December 2026, improving decision timeliness for all potential victims of slavery and trafficking referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).

We have recruited new staff to the Single Competent Authority and are seeing significantly increased number of Conclusive Grounds decisions as a result of these new staff becoming operational. Decision-making times have reduced in the most recent quarter and the backlog is now half the size it was at its peak.

In addition, we are continuing to explore ways to improve the First Responder Form used by First Responder Organisations to refer potential victims of modern slavery and trafficking into the NRM, to improve the quality of referrals into the NRM system, so that decisions can be taken as early as possible.

Statutory guidance outlines that a minimum period of 30 days must pass between a Reasonable Grounds and Conclusive Grounds decision, and that such a decision can only be made once all relevant information has been gathered or received.

Statistics about NRM referrals and decisions are published quarterly on gov.uk.