Human Trafficking

Home Affairs Committee Closed Inquiry
Opened: 7 Feb 2023 Closed: 24 May 2024 Parliament page
In this inquiry, launched in February 2023, the Home Affairs Committee is assessing the scale of human trafficking in the UK and the forms it takes. It also investigates whether Government policy, legislation and the criminal justice system can be improved to prevent human trafficking, prosecute perpetrators and protect victims. … Read more
37 Recommendations
66 Conclusions
1 Report
6 Oral sessions
3 Letters
6 Events
Activity timeline 17 events
15 May
2024
Correspondence
13 Mar
2024
Correspondence
22 Feb
2024
Report published
8 Dec
2023
Report published
19 Jul
2023
Oral evidence
19 Jul
2023
Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · Room 16, Palace of Westminster
12 Jul
2023
Correspondence
5 Jul
2023
Oral evidence
5 Jul
2023
Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · Room 8, Palace of Westminster
21 Jun
2023
Oral evidence
21 Jun
2023
Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · Room 16, Palace of Westminster
7 Jun
2023
Oral evidence
Oral evidence sessions 6 sessions
19 Jul 2023
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Andrew Patrick · Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office Joanna West · Home Office Matthew Bligh · Home Office Miss Sarah Dines · Home Office Rebecca Wyse · Home Office
5 Jul 2023
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Assistant Chief Constable Jim Pearce · National Police Chiefs' Council Caroline Haughey OBE KC · Furnival Chambers Lynette Woodrow · Crown Prosecution Service Rob Jones CBE · National Crime Agency Stuart Peall · Lancashire Police
21 Jun 2023
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Allyson Davies · Barnard's National Counter Trafficking Service Danny Bayraktarova · Wilson Solicitors LLP Elaine Bass · Home Office James Fookes · Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group (ATMG) Laura Durán · ECPAT UK Major Kathy Betteridge · Salvation Army Siobhan Jolliffe · Home Office
7 Jun 2023
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Dr. Ben Brewster · Rights Lab, University of Nottingham Neelam Patankar · Digital Ventures Professor Teela Sanders · University of Leicester Rhoda Grant · Scottish Parliament
10 May 2023
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Elysia McCaffrey · Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) Kate Roberts · Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX) Ruth Breslin · The Sexual Exploitation Research Programme (SERP) Sylvia Walby · Royal Holloway, University of London Tatiana Gren-Jardan · Joint Modern Slavery Policy Unit Justice and Care and Centre for Social Justice
19 Apr 2023
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Professor Dame Sara Thornton · The Rights Lab, University of Nottingham The Rt Hon. the Baroness Butler-Sloss GBE
Title HC No. Published Items Response
First Report - Human trafficking HC 124 8 Dec 2023 103 Responded
Recommendations & Conclusions
6 results
Clear
7 Recommendation Accepted in Part
First Report - Human trafficking
Home Office stakeholder engagement on modern slavery legislation remains unacceptably poor.
The Home Office’s approach to stakeholder engagement has been lackadaisical. It has taken the Home Office two years to launch a new formation of stakeholder groups (Modern Slavery Stakeholder Forums), during which time key legislation affecting victims of trafficking has … Read more
Government Response
The government welcomed a new Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner at the end of 2023, addressing the vacancy. It also committed to continuing to work closely with stakeholders through Modern Slavery Engagement Forums.
Home Office
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65 Recommendation Accepted in Part
First Report - Human trafficking
Recruit 200 NRM decision-makers by end of 2023 and reduce attrition to 15%.
The Home Office must recruit the promised 200 National Referral Mechanism decision-makers by the end of 2023 and focus on reducing the attrition rate to 15%. This should be done through increased resourcing, training and support for ongoing staff, as … Read more
Government Response
The government commits to increasing the NRM workforce and boosting productivity, addressing the recruitment aspect, but does not specifically commit to the target of 200 staff by end of 2023, reducing attrition to 15%, or collecting data on reasons for staff leaving.
Home Office
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66 Recommendation Accepted in Part
First Report - Human trafficking
Publish quarterly statistics on Competent Authority staff numbers, roles, and attrition rates.
The Home Office should include in its quarterly National Referral Mechanism statistics data on the number of Competent Authority staff, setting out how many are Reasonable Grounds/Conclusive Grounds decision makers, how many are new staff, and giving the attrition rate … Read more
Government Response
The government states that quarterly NRM statistics already include data on the number of Competent Authority staff and that they will consider including additional data in future publications without compromising privacy.
Home Office
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90 Conclusion Accepted in Part
First Report - Human trafficking
Devolved decision-making pilot for children lacks evaluation and excludes vulnerable groups.
We welcome the Home Office’s devolved decision-making pilot for children. However, we are concerned that more than two years into the pilot the Home Office has still not published an evaluation of its outcomes. Furthermore, we are concerned that the … Read more
Government Response
The government stated an initial evaluation was conducted and committed to publishing future evaluations of the pilot. They expanded the pilot to ten additional sites but rejected expanding the scope to include age-disputed children or those within 100 days of their 18th birthday due to risks of incomplete cases.
Home Office
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91 Conclusion Accepted in Part
First Report - Human trafficking
Publish interim and full evaluations of the devolved decision-making pilot for children.
The Home office must publish an interim evaluation of the devolved decision-making pilot for children by January 2024, and thereafter a full evaluation of all phases of the Pilot by June 2024. If the outcomes are successful, all decision making … Read more
Government Response
The government committed to publishing evaluations of the devolved decision-making pilot to inform future policy, but did not specify deadlines or commit to transferring all decision-making to local authorities within a year as recommended, stating future expansion will be driven by various factors.
Home Office
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100 Conclusion Accepted in Part
First Report - Human trafficking
Unaccompanied children in contingency accommodation highly vulnerable to trafficking and going missing.
Unaccompanied children living in contingency accommodation are particularly vulnerable to being trafficked, or re-trafficked. Between July 2021 and 19 October 2022, there were 391 episodes where children went missing from hotels. This is unacceptable. Read more
Government Response
The government agrees that local authority care is best and has closed six of seven hotels for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children by November 2023, with the last closing in January 2024, directly addressing the vulnerability in contingency accommodation.
Home Office
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Government Response AI assessment · 103 of 37 classified
Accepted 17
Accepted in Part 6
Acknowledged 12
Deferred 46
Not Addressed 7
Rejected 15
Total 37 recs + 66 conclusions
Correspondence 3 letters
15 May 2024 To committee Letter from the Home Secretary, regarding the Government’s Response to the Human Trafficking report, dated 2 May 2024
Parliament page
13 Mar 2024 To committee Letter from the Chair to the Home Secretary regarding the Government’s Response to the Human Trafficking inquiry, dated 7 March 2024
Parliament page
12 Jul 2023 From committee Letter to the Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire on Adult Services Websites (ASWs), dated 5 July 2023
Parliament page