Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority

(asked on 4th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the reasons are for the (a) creation of the Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority on 8 November 2021 and (b) short timeframe for its creation.


Answered by
Tom Pursglove Portrait
Tom Pursglove
Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
This question was answered on 10th January 2022

We are committed to having robust and victim-focused measures in place for addressing modern slavery. The Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority (IECA) was created to streamline decision-making and ensure, wherever possible, that the various factors which may be pertinent to decisions about an individual are taken by those who can consider their circumstances most fully.

Immigration Enforcement’s immediate priority is always the welfare of the individual, and to ensure that all vulnerable migrants receive the support and assistance they need regardless of their immigration status. Immigration Enforcement already make decisions on key safeguarding and vulnerability matters such as the Adults at Risk policy and human rights decisions. Both the IECA and the Single Competent Authority (SCA) decision makers receive the same training on National Referral Mechanism (NRM) decision making and consistently apply the statutory guidance for potential victims of modern slavery.

Both competent authorities are held to account through existing quality assurance processes and the Multi-Agency Assurance Panels will continue to quality assure all negative Conclusive Grounds decisions.

The data on decisions taken by the IECA will be set out in the quarterly publication of NRM statistics and a breakdown by competent authority will be published once there is sufficient data to ensure individuals are not identifiable. We will regularly review this data to understand the impact of the change and ensure polices are being applied consistently.

This Government remains committed to identifying victims quickly, enhancing the support they receive and improving the training given to First Responders, who are responsible for referring potential victims into the NRM.

The Home Office has produced e-learning to help First Responders to identify potential victims of modern slavery and make referrals into the NRM when appropriate to do so. The e-learning is available through the Modern Slavery Organised Immigration Crime (MSOIC) website here: https://www.policingslavery.co.uk/transforming-our-response/training-delivery/first-responder-training/ .

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