Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people were prosecuted under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in each year since it came into force; and what were their (1) nationalities, (2) ages, and (3) genders.

The number of defendants prosecuted under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in England and Wales, from 2015 to 2017, can be found in the table, split by sex and age. Information on nationality is not centrally held by the Ministry of Justice.

Number of people prosecuted under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 by age and sex, 2015(1)(2)

- = nil

(1) The figures given in the table relate to defendants 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 it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.

(2) There can be a delay between the commencement of new offences and seeing them in court data, primarily due to the time it takes for an offence to be investigated, the police to assign it an outcome, and the prosecution, before resulting in a completed court case

Figures for 2018 are planned for publication in May 2019.