Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has held recent discussions with the providers of the modern slavery victim care contract on the re-procurement process for that contract.

Answered by Sarah Dines

We are working with a cross-departmental team to assess potential contract and policy options for a new model of modern slavery victim support for adults to replace that currently met through the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC) in England And Wales ending in June 2025. This new contracted service for victims of modern slavery will be offered for competitive tender.

We are planning both market and policy engagement events to gain input from a wide range of external stakeholders, with an initial early market supplier event held on 20 February 2023. This event included a range of potential suppliers who were notified via the publication of an early market engagement notice. The attendees included the incumbent supplier, and several of their supply chain partners.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential effectiveness of the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract and its support for victims of modern slavery.

Answered by Sarah Dines

We are working with a cross-departmental team to assess potential contract and policy options for a new model of modern slavery victim support for adults to replace that currently met through the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC) in England And Wales ending in June 2025. This new contracted service for victims of modern slavery will be offered for competitive tender.

We are planning both market and policy engagement events to gain input from a wide range of external stakeholders, with an initial early market supplier event held on 20 February 2023. This event included a range of potential suppliers who were notified via the publication of an early market engagement notice. The attendees included the incumbent supplier, and several of their supply chain partners.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department’s planned timescale is for the re-procurement of the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract.

Answered by Sarah Dines

We are working with a cross-departmental team to assess potential contract and policy options for a new model of modern slavery victim support for adults to replace that currently met through the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC) in England And Wales ending in June 2025. This new contracted service for victims of modern slavery will be offered for competitive tender.

We are planning both market and policy engagement events to gain input from a wide range of external stakeholders, with an initial early market supplier event held on 20 February 2023. This event included a range of potential suppliers who were notified via the publication of an early market engagement notice. The attendees included the incumbent supplier, and several of their supply chain partners.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department's estimated timeline is for the re-procurement of the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract to the providers which issue support for victims of modern slavery.

Answered by Sarah Dines

We are working with a cross-departmental team to assess potential contract and policy options for a new model of modern slavery victim support for adults to replace that currently met through the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC) in England And Wales ending in June 2025. This new contracted service for victims of modern slavery will be offered for competitive tender.

We are planning both market and policy engagement events to gain input from a wide range of external stakeholders, with an initial early market supplier event held on 20 February 2023. This event included a range of potential suppliers who were notified via the publication of an early market engagement notice. The attendees included the incumbent supplier, and several of their supply chain partners.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to support victims of human trafficking and modern slavery in the UK.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Government is committed to delivering personalised, needs-based support to victims of modern slavery, which places the individual victim and their recovery needs at the heart of the support we provide.

The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the process that identifies and supports victims of modern slavery by connecting them with appropriate support; including through the UK government funded Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC), support provided by local authorities, asylum services, and wider state support services such as the NHS.

The MSVCC is valued at over £300m and helps thousands of victims in England and Wales each year to access vital support they need to assist with their recovery from their modern slavery experience. It provides victims with three core pillars of support: safehouse accommodation, financial support (where necessary), and access to a support worker to assist with accessing wider services such as healthcare, translation services and legal aid. The Government’s comprehensive support offer is set out in full in Annex F of the Modern Slavery Statutory guidance, found modern slavery statutory guidance, non statutory guidance v2.11 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Support for victims in Scotland and Northern Ireland is provided by the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive respectively.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to introduce 12 months of individualised support for victims of modern slavery following a positive conclusive grounds decision.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Government has made clear its commitment that, where necessary, all those who receive a positive conclusive grounds decision and are in need of specific support will receive appropriate tailored support for a minimum of 12 months.

We are actively considering how to deliver this commitment in a way that best serves the individual needs of modern slavery victims and will be able to provide further details in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress she has made on introducing 12 months of individualised support for victims of modern slavery following a positive conclusive grounds decision.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Government has made clear its commitment that, where necessary, all those who receive a positive conclusive grounds decision and are in need of specific support will receive appropriate tailored support for a minimum of 12 months.

We are actively considering how to deliver this commitment in a way that best serves the individual needs of modern slavery victims and will be able to provide further details in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she will enact the provision in the Nationality and Borders Bill which provides for 12 months of individualised support for victims of modern slavery following a positive conclusive grounds decision.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Government has made clear its commitment that, where necessary, all those who receive a positive conclusive grounds decision and are in need of specific support will receive appropriate tailored support for a minimum of 12 months.

We are actively considering how to deliver this commitment in a way that best serves the individual needs of modern slavery victims and will be able to provide further details in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress she has made on introducing 12 months of individualised support for victims of modern slavery following a positive conclusive grounds decision.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Government has made clear its commitment that, where necessary, all those who receive a positive conclusive grounds decision and are in need of specific support will receive appropriate tailored support for a minimum of 12 months.

We are actively considering how to deliver this commitment in a way that best serves the individual needs of modern slavery victims and will be able to provide further details in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many criminals and terrorists have been identified as applying for the support available to victims of modern slavery since 2016.

Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

There is more information on referrals available at: Modern Slavery: National Referral Mechanism and Duty to Notify statistics UK, end of year summary 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

There is also information available on issues (including modern slavery) raised by people in immigration detention available at: Issues raised by people facing return in immigration detention - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)