Forced Labour: Prosecutions
(asked on 8th September 2014) - View Source
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many successful prosecutions for forced labour there were in each of the last three financial years.
The records held by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) indicate the number of offences charged, in which a prosecution was commenced at a magistrates’ courts rather than the identifying the number of people prosecuted or convicted.
Section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 creates the offence of holding someone in slavery or servitude, or requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour.
During each of the last three years the number of offences charged by way of Section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act, and Section 1 of the Criminal Law Act as conspiracies to commit the offences, is as follows:
2011-2012 | 2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | |
Coroners and Justice Act 2009 { 71 } | 15 | 20 | 18 |
Criminal Law Act 1977 { 1(1) } - Conspiracy to hold a person in slavery, servitude or perform forced or compulsory labour | 0 | 2 | 46 |
Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System
| |||
There is no indication of the number of individual defendants prosecuted for these offences or the final outcome of the prosecution proceeding, or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at the time of finalisation. It is often the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence against the same victim.
In addition to the offence of trafficking for forced labour, the CPS will also prosecute for offences of trafficking.