Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures are in place to ensure that children are treated first as victims rather than defendants where cases involve one of the offences exempt from statutory defence listed in Schedule 4 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

The Government regards slavery, including trafficking, of children as a very serious offence. The Section 45 statutory defence was designed to strengthen the existing prosecutorial discretion, and public interest test against prosecuting suspects acting under duress. The purpose behind this was to also ensure that a child’s additional vulnerabilities are taken into account on a case by case basis. This legal principle is supported by extensive training the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the police are provided with to recognise indicators of duress. CPS guidance can be found via the link below:

https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/human-trafficking-smuggling-and-slavery

Where children are found to be victims of modern slavery, their safety and welfare needs must be addressed as the priority. All local agencies (including local authorities, police and border force) also have statutory duties to safeguard children as part of their local responsibilities.

Furthermore, the Government is keen for Independent Child Trafficking Advocates to continue to support law enforcement agencies to identify trafficked children as victims rather than perpetrators and to ensure, where appropriate, that the Section 45 statutory defence is applied.