Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many permanent members of staff are employed within the Human Trafficking and Kidnap Unit of the Metropolitan Police Service, and what staffing changes are envisaged in the next year.

The Government takes modern slavery very seriously and the Modern Slavery Strategy sets out our approach to improving the law enforcement response. We expect individual forces to allocate adequate resources to tackling serious crime including modern slavery, within the overall level of funding available to them. However, decisions about the specific level of funding and staffing for specific units within the Metropolitan Police, such as the Human Trafficking and Kidnap Unit, are matters for the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime.