Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 20 July (HL1460), whether the guidance for competent authorities will be revised to include indicators of slavery, servitude, and forced or compulsory labour, in accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as distinct from cases of human trafficking for these forms of exploitation; and if so, when that guidance will be produced.

Updated guidance for competent authorities was published on 31 July 2015 to reflect the extension of the National Referral Mechanism to identify and support all victims of modern slavery in England and Wales. This guidance now includes information on the definitions and nature of all forms of modern slavery. On the same day, similar updates were also published to the guidance for frontline workers on identifying victims of modern slavery.