Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
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 - Shadow Minister (Women)
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.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
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
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.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
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
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.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
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
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.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
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
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.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
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 - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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)
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when organisations will be permitted to share their learning in the form of high level, non-identifying data from their front-line work undertaken under the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Under the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC), a lot of personal and protected data is generated, stored and processed to enable delivery of key services to vulnerable victims.
The Single Competent Authority (SCA), who manage the MSVC Contract delivered by The Salvation Army (TSA), is currently reviewing how such data can be appropriately handled for research purposes.
It is imperative to get the balance right between ensuring that rich data can support insights into key operational and policy activities, and ensuring that (when such data is utilised) it is done in ways which are fully compliant with data protection rules and are transparent to the victims themselves.
Service providers are already able to engage with TSA and the SCA should they want to provide high level, non-identifying data for the purposes of research.
The SCA has been communicating with MSVCC service providers about this ongoing work, and the potential next steps in agreeing a contractual mechanism to manage any such future research.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Home Office plans to publish an explanation of its prohibition of the use of any data which results from the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Under the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC), a lot of personal and protected data is generated, stored and processed to enable delivery of key services to vulnerable victims.
The Single Competent Authority (SCA), who manage the MSVC Contract delivered by The Salvation Army (TSA), is currently reviewing how such data can be appropriately handled for research purposes.
It is imperative to get the balance right between ensuring that rich data can support insights into key operational and policy activities, and ensuring that (when such data is utilised) it is done in ways which are fully compliant with data protection rules and are transparent to the victims themselves.
Service providers are already able to engage with TSA and the SCA should they want to provide high level, non-identifying data for the purposes of research.
The SCA has been communicating with MSVCC service providers about this ongoing work, and the potential next steps in agreeing a contractual mechanism to manage any such future research.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons subcontractors are not permitted to share high level, non-identifying data secured within the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract for the purposes of anti-trafficking research.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Under the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC), a lot of personal and protected data is generated, stored and processed to enable delivery of key services to vulnerable victims.
The Single Competent Authority (SCA), who manage the MSVC Contract delivered by The Salvation Army (TSA), is currently reviewing how such data can be appropriately handled for research purposes.
It is imperative to get the balance right between ensuring that rich data can support insights into key operational and policy activities, and ensuring that (when such data is utilised) it is done in ways which are fully compliant with data protection rules and are transparent to the victims themselves.
Service providers are already able to engage with TSA and the SCA should they want to provide high level, non-identifying data for the purposes of research.
The SCA has been communicating with MSVCC service providers about this ongoing work, and the potential next steps in agreeing a contractual mechanism to manage any such future research.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham Yardley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to set up a redress scheme to ensure that all eligible survivors of trafficking and slavery who were denied subsistence payments are able to receive the back-dated payments.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
We are aware that between 1 April 2015 – 30 November 2019, individuals who were in receipt of financial support payments during their time in the (then) Victim Care Contract (VCC) could have seen their support payments reduced as a result of them receiving alternative sources of income. This was in a way that was not in line with published policy or with the wording of the VCC. When uncovered, this practice was ceased in November 2019.
As back-payments may be appropriate in some cases, we are currently working on a process to establish individual eligibility and considering back-payment mechanisms.
We continue to work diligently to finalise these considerations, to provide the most effective remedy to those who could have been affected by incorrect financial support reductions. We will provide further details as our work progresses.