Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to tackle child trafficking.

This Government is clear that targeting, grooming and the exploitation of children who are often the most vulnerable in our society is deplorable and is committed to tackling it. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 gives law enforcement agencies the tools to tackle modern slavery, including potential maximum sentences of life imprisonment for perpetrators and specific support and protection for victims, including children. £17.8 million of dedicated funding has been provided to the police since 2016, helping to improve the police’s ability to identify victims and to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators and we are investing up to £145 million over three years to tackle drugs supply and county lines activity. The Prevention Programme in England and Wales also delivers tailored interventions, based on police intelligence, to improve multi-agency collaboration in prevention of all exploitation types and help identify hot spot locations, priority areas and specific threats in each region.

The identification of a child who is a potential victim of modern slavery, or is at risk of being a victim, should always trigger the agreed local child protection procedures to ensure the child’s safety and welfare, and to enable the police to gather evidence about abusers and coercers. In addition to this statutory support, the Government has rolled out Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs) who provide an additional source of advice and support for potentially trafficked children, irrespective of nationality, and is piloting their impact with sites covering two thirds of all local authorities across England and nationally in Wales.