Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many child victims of human trafficking were interviewed in 2013 by competent authority staff, as opposed to specialist interviewers.

"There were 450 potential victims of trafficking who were minors at the time of exploitation referred into the National Referral Mechanism in 2013. These referrals were considered by UK Visas and Immigration and the UK Human Trafficking Centre.

The UK Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC) do not conduct interviews with potential victims of trafficking. Interviews may take place with other agencies, for example the Police or Social Services, however UKHTC does not keep a record of who conducts the interviews, or when the interviews take place.

UK Visas and Immigration do conduct interviews where appropriate. Information on the training received by the staff involved in interviewing is not collated centrally and establishing this would incur disproportionate cost. However, all UKVI staff undertaking interviews with children must have undertaken specialist training. In addition, staff may also have received Competent Authority training which includes a two day specialist training course. All reasonable grounds and conclusive ground decisions are taken by trained Competent Authority staff."