Supporting Victims of Modern Slavery
The Government remains committed to ensuring the police and the courts have the necessary powers to bring perpetrators of modern slavery to justice, while giving victims the support they need to rebuild their lives. The United Kingdom is a signatory of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (ECAT), which sets out signatory states’ international obligations to identify and support victims of modern slavery.
	When it is deemed that there are Reasonable Grounds (RG) to believe an individual is a victim of modern slavery, that individual is protected from removal (unless an exemption applies) for the 30-day recovery period or until they have received a Conclusive Grounds (CG) decision regarding whether they are a confirmed victim of modern slavery, whichever is longer. While individuals are protected from removal, they are also entitled to support in line with their needs.
	Most potential victims of modern slavery receive a positive decision. In 2020, the Single Competent Authority (SCA) made 10,608 reasonable grounds decisions, of which 92% (9,765) were positive. They also made 3,454 conclusive grounds decisions, of which 89% (3,084) were positive.
	The most common nationality of all referrals to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in 2020 was United Kingdom nationals, accounting for 34% (3,560) of all potential victims. This was followed by Albanian and Vietnamese nationals, that made up 15% (1,638) and 6% (653) of NRM referrals respectively. United Kingdom dual nationals made up 2% (231) of all NRM referrals in 2020.
	The Government wants to ensure that victims are identified and provided with support, and that any gaps in the system which allow for the NRM to be misused are addressed. This will avoid resources being diverted away from victims who need support and unnecessary impacts on removal actions. In 2021, the NRM system is estimated to have cost at least £80m.
	The measures outlined in this Act seek to ensure victims are identified as quickly as possible, while enabling decision makers to distinguish more effectively between genuine and non-genuine accounts of modern slavery and enabling the removal of serious criminals and people who pose a threat to United Kingdom national security.
	There are concerns about the potential for a referral to the National Referral Mechanism to be used to frustrate Immigration Enforcement action or gain access to support inappropriately.
	Of the individuals released from detention following being detained in the United Kingdom for immigration offences, 1,005 were referred to the NRM while in detention in 2020.
	NRM referrals from Foreign National Offenders and foreign nationals held on remand are rising, with an average of 85 per month in the first five months of 2021 (compared to 19 per month in 2018). In 2019, only 6% of FNOs referred to the NRM from detention were returned.
	FNOs were less likely to receive a positive RG decision (73%) compared to RG decisions for all referrals (90%) in 2019 . The CG decision data between all NRM referrals and FNO referrals from detention are harder to compare due to the time lag to a conclusive decision and the number of outstanding decisions.
	This raises concerns that some referrals are being made late in the process to frustrate immigration action and that legitimate referrals are not being made in a timely way.
	The modern slavery measures in this Act aims to set out the rights and entitlements of possible victims and to bring clarity to victims and decision-makers as to how decisions should be taken to ensure individuals are identified and supported as quickly as possible.
	This package of measures is enhanced by non-legislative changes.