Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 30 April (HL6886), of the eight appeals against conviction under section 2 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, how many (1) have been dismissed, (2) have been upheld, and (3) are pending.

In 2015 and 2016 there were no convictions under Sections 1 or 2 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 reported to the Ministry of Justice. In 2017, a total of 7 offenders were convicted of offences under Section 1 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and 8 offenders were convicted of offences under Section 2 of the Act.

Recorded figures relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences the principal offence is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the principal offence recorded is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.

The figures appearing in the Written Answer of 30 April [HL6886 and HL 6887] were taken from the Crown Court case management system and provided a total of appeals initially lodged but not at the point of being categorised by appeal type. Consequently, these figures included cases that the Criminal Appeal Office would later have recorded as appeals against other offences. Figures taken from Criminal Appeal Office records, which do categorise appeal types, show that:

No applications for leave to appeal against conviction under section 1 of the Modern Slavery Act have been received.

1 application for leave to appeal against conviction under section 2 of the Modern Slavery Act has been received and is still pending.

1 application for leave to appeal against sentence under section 1 of the Modern Slavery Act was received but was abandoned by the applicant and is now closed.

3 applications for leave to appeal against sentence under section 2 of the Modern Slavery Act have been received. Of those, 1 is still pending and 2 have lapsed after leave to appeal was refused.

Additionally, the Attorney General referred 1 sentence under section 2 of the Modern Slavery Act to the Court of Appeal for review under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme; the appeal was allowed and the sentence increased. And there was 1 prosecution appeal which confirmed the Crown Court ruling and the defendant was acquitted.