Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number of people with a past or present National Referral Mechanism referral who are in custody in the UK as at 16 July 2020.

The Single Competent Authority (SCA) operates the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) which is a civil process for the identification and support of victims of modern slavery. The SCA does not hold real time data on the number of individuals referred into the NRM who are in custody at any specific time.

The SCA requests information from all parties, as required and relevant, in order to make effective decisions about an individual’s modern slavery/human trafficking experience(s). Information regarding remands in custody or sentences will not be relevant to the decision as to whether a person was a victim of Modern Slavery.