Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the difference in needs between (1) children who have been trafficked from overseas, and (2) British children who have been trafficked internally; and how the current provision of support differs between those two groups.

The Government introduced Independent Child Trafficking Advocates in three early adopter sites (Greater Manchester, Hampshire and nationally in Wales). The service has been running in these sites from January 2017 until January 2019. An interim assessment of the first year of the Independent Child Trafficking Advocate (ICTA) service (February 2017 – January 2018) and associated data tables were published in July 2018 and can be found https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/730098/assessment-of-independent-child-trafficking-advocates-horr101.pdf

In July 2018, the Government announced that it would roll out the ICTA service to one third of local authorities by April 2019. Following the expansion of the service, around one third of all children that we estimate will be referred into the NRM will be eligible to access the ICTA service in England and Wales.