Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to ensure police forces have identified a single point of contact on modern slavery and exploitation at the (a) strategic command and (b) tactical investigative level.

In October 2016 the Home Secretary announced £8.5m of additional funding would be made available to police forces in England and Wales to transform the policing response to modern slavery. The funding from the Police Transformation Fund has provided for nearly 70 new and dedicated roles to provide the police with improved intelligence, better training and specialist tactical advice to overhaul and strengthen the operational response. Included in the additional capabilities are:

Single Points of Contact (SPOCs)

Forces have been encouraged to identify tactical and strategic SPOCs and have been given an action plan for SPOCs to help them develop best practice. A programme of roadshows and events that bring these SPOCs together at each level has taken place over the last year and this schedule projects forward beyond the end of the funding period.

Intelligence and Data

The Joint Slavery and Trafficking Analysis Centre (JSTAC) is building and developing the strategic intelligence picture by improving data collection and analysis of the information gathered. To aid in international dissemination of information, a seconded national expert to Europol to coordinate activity between UK law enforcement and European counterparts during cross-border investigations has been implemented. Supporting the JSTAC, the police national insight team and regional analysts located in the Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) provide regular intelligence products to inform policing at a national, regional, and force level.

All three of the analytical teams, and a separate team dedicated to overcoming challenges in the dissemination of NRM material are contributing to guidance to forces about crime recording, and intelligence flows within law enforcement and between partners.

Training and dealing with vulnerable people

The College of Policing accredited programme of training activity for all frontline police officers and staff, was launched in July 2017. Over 120 police trainers have been trained in delivering an awareness raising module within forces. Over 1000 frontline staff have attended awareness raising roadshows organised in each region. In addition, funding has been made available for a specialist training course for detectives working on modern slavery cases, which include advice and guidance on supporting victims through the CJS process. To date over 300 investigators have gone through these courses. In addition, new specialist guidance for officers who interview vulnerable victims of trafficking has been developed and over 575 interviewers have received training linked to this. Resources to support investigators, analysts and front line staff in the police, and appropriate other agencies, are available through the College of Policing Polka site.

One of the two victim advocacy roles within the Modern Slavery Police Transformation Programme has focused on improving the use of the Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) process in modern slavery cases, in light of the recommendation made in the Modern Slavery Act Review. This includes developing specialist interview techniques for victims reporting modern slavery. The approach has been endorsed by the College of Policing and promoted to over 575 existing ABE interviewers to date.

The Crown Prosecution Service has delivered mandatory face to face accredited training for prosecutors to develop expertise and build resilience in complex casework units, central casework units and for criminal justice advisors overseas.

Outcomes

As a result of this investment the number of modern slavery law enforcement operations ongoing at any one time have more than tripled (from 188 in December 2018 to 643 in March 2018). As of March 2018, police services are working to identify and protect at least 1500 vulnerable persons who the police consider may be victims of modern slavery.