Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which National Referral Mechanism first responder agencies referred people who were found to be exploiting the modern slavery system in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022 as of 7 November 2022; and how many of these cases were brought by each National Referral Mechanism first responder agency.

As you will be aware, the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the UK’s framework for identifying victims of modern slavery. A First Responder Organisation (FRO) is an authority that is authorised to refer a potential victim of modern slavery into the NRM. Members of staff at those FROs have a responsibility for discharging one or more of the functions of the FRO, including recognising the indicators of modern slavery and identifying potential victims of modern slavery, and subsequently referring those potential victims into the NRM.

Decisions about who is then recognised and confirmed as a victim of modern slavery are made by trained specialists in one of the Home Office competent authorities (Single Competent Authority (SCA) and the Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority (IECA)).

The competent authorities’ assessment of whether an individual is a victim of modern slavery is two-stage process. A competent authority will first make a decision as to whether there is enough evidence available such that it ‘suspects but cannot prove’ that the individual is a victim of modern slavery. This is the reasonable grounds (RG) decision. Where a positive decision is issued the competent authority will then go on to gather further information about the case and then make a second decision on ‘the balance of probabilities’ whether that individual is a victim of modern slavery; this is the conclusive grounds (CG) decision.