Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to update the Modern slavery strategy, published on 29 November 2014.
This government is taking forward an updated approach to tackling modern slavery through delivery, reform and integration across wider Government strategies, rather than by re-issuing an updated standalone strategy.
Our March 2025 Modern Slavery Action Plan provided a clear delivery framework for 2025/26, and has already driven seen significant progress across the modern slavery portfolio, including an 84% reduction in outstanding National Referral Mechanism (NRM) conclusive grounds decisions (as of end of April 2026). This means that victims are receiving certainty and appropriate support in a timely fashion, allowing them to recover from their exploitation.
We are also strengthening the system itself, including through the expansion of devolved decision-making pilot for exploited children, and the procurement of new support services for adult and child victims of modern slavery. Alongside this, we have updated guidance for modern slavery statements and are progressing work to strengthen the transparency in supply chains regime, including consideration of mandating reporting, penalties for non-compliance, and the extending requirements to public bodies.
These reforms are being taken forward as part of wider Government priorities set out in the Asylum and Returns Policy Statement (“Restoring Order and Control”) and Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy (“Freedom from violence and abuse”), ensuring modern slavery policy is embedded across prevention, enforcement and victim support. Officials are now taking forward the findings from the recent Call for Evidence on victim identification to inform the next phase of system reform.