Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 11 November 2014 to Question 213215, when her Department expects to lay before Parliament a report in relation to advocates for victims of child trafficking.

Barnardo’s has been awarded a grant of £420,916 from the Home Office for the provision of advocates during the 12 month trial across 23 local authorities. The cost of the independent evaluation being undertaken by the University of
Bedfordshire is £138,543 exclusive of VAT.

An evaluation report will be submitted to the Home Office at the end of the trial in November 2015. The Modern Slavery Bill commits the Government to lay a report before Parliament no later than 9 months after
Royal Assent on setting out the steps it is proposed to take in relation to child trafficking advocates. Lessons learnt from the trial will be detailed in the report, at which point we will be in a better position to assess what works
best in supporting and protecting these vulnerable children.

In January 2014 the Government announced proposals to trial specialist independent advocates for trafficked children. The trial began on 8 September 2014 and will run for a period of 12 months across 23 local authorities in
England. These are listed in the table below.