Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 1 November (HL10891), whether they will instruct the Independent Child Trafficking Advocate service to collect data on the status of a child's National Referral Mechanism referral at the point the child leaves the service so that the data can be anonymised and analysed.

Information on the Independent Child Trafficking Advocate (ICTA) service and children who exited support can be found in the Interim Report published by the Home Office in July, and the accompanying data tables on Gov.UK.

On turning 18, any young person who is awaiting an NRM decision, becomes eligible for support from The Salvation Army through the Victim Care Contract. It is part of the ICTA’s role to ensure they effectively transition children turning 18 into appropriate support upon leaving the ICTA service. This can include services procured through The Salvation Army and a range of locally provided adult services. The transition of children out of the ICTA service, including when a child turns 18, is being examined as part of the next phase of the assessment of the ICTA service in early adopter sites and will form part of the final report, to be published in Spring 2019.

The Government has also commissioned an Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 which is examining section 48 of the Act, which provides for ICTAs.