Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how the eligibility criteria for local authority anti-trafficking pilots relating to the trafficking of people have been determined.

The Government wants to ensure that when adult victims of modern slavery leave National Referral Mechanism (NRM) support, they are able to begin re-building their lives as early as possible. Victims leaving the NRM can either be supported to return to their country of origin, apply for asylum, or move into a local community.

As part of NRM reform, Home Office Ministers committed to working with local authorities to test ‘transition pathways’ for victims who move out of NRM support and into local communities, with a view to identifying best practice.

Over the next year, we will be working with six local authorities on this project which will contribute to a more robust evidence base including the number of victims who move into local communities after NRM support and what support they require.