Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of reports of torture and other serious human rights abuses in scam centres operating in Cambodia; and what steps his Department is taking to press for accountability and the protection of victims.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer he was given on 3 November in response to Questions 85061-64, and I would add that we are closely monitoring reports of torture, human trafficking and other abuses in Myanmar-based scam centres, working with partners and international organisations to gather evidence of the scale of the problem, and strengthening law enforcement capacity to detect, investigate, and disrupt online trafficking recruitment and illicit financial flows linked to cyber-enabled fraud. All evidence is kept under review, and further action will be taken when needed.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to disrupt organised criminal gangs involved in human trafficking.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is committed to tackling all forms of modern slavery, including human trafficking and ensuring that victims are identified and supported and offenders are brought to justice. The Modern Slavery Action Plan for 2025-2026 sets out the Government’s ambition to do this.
Under the Action Plan, we are working closely with law enforcement partners in the UK and internationally, to share intelligence to identify organised criminal gangs and tackle the enablers of human trafficking to disrupt offending. This includes implementing measures through the Online Safety Act; providing support through the Modern Slavery Fund to tackle modern slavery at source and reduce the threat both overseas and to the UK; and commissioning research to better under the nexus between organised immigration crime and modern slavery, to identify new ways to break criminals’ business models.
The National Police Chief Council Lead for Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime is also developing a new national framework for investigating modern slavery, which is designed to support police officers at every stage of the investigative process to secure better outcomes.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, What recent discussions his Department has had with partners to counter human trafficking and modern slavery in global supply chains.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The issues raised by the Hon Member are all significant priorities for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and he can find regular updates about them by consulting the FCDO's annual reports, following the FCDO news feed on GOV.UK, or attending sessions of FCDO departmental questions.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will introduce protections to ensure asylum seekers under the duress of criminal gangs are not punished for failing to disclose they are being influenced.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We recognise that that all asylum seekers are potentially vulnerable, and during the asylum decision making process, we aim to ensure that particularly vulnerable claimants are identified, the particular difficulties they may face in disclosing their experiences are given due consideration when assessing their credibility, and that they are given help in accessing appropriate services.
As the Home Secretary said in her statement of 17 November, we are committed to ensuring that victims of modern slavery are quickly identified and can access the necessary support through the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which is the UK’s framework for identifying and supporting victims of exploitation and human trafficking. However, we are also determined to pursue and tackle any abuse of the system to ensure it is working effectively for victims.
NRM decision-makers are trained to recognise conditions which may cause delays or inconsistencies in an individual’s account, including trauma, barriers to disclosure, and a reluctance on the part of potential victim to self-identify themselves as such. Timing of disclosure is also a relevant factor in assessing a potential victim’s modern slavery case. We will strengthen this further to ensure that it is a key consideration when deciding on the credibility of a case, whilst bearing in mind the impact that trauma has on victims of these crimes.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps will be taken to involve individuals with lived experience and civil society groups in shaping the modern slavery legislation proposed in the Restoring Order and Control policy paper published on 17 November 2025.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We are seeking to introduce new modern slavery legislation as part of our efforts to review and improve the modern slavery system. New legislation will enable us to clearly articulate the UK’s responsibilities under international law regarding modern slavery, allowing us to reduce opportunities for misuse, whilst also ensuring that we continue to provide the right protections for those who need it.
The government recently concluded a public Call for Evidence to understand how it could improve the process of identifying victims of modern slavery, human trafficking and exploitation. It was open for twelve weeks and closed on 8 October 2025.
This gave us an opportunity to hear the views of survivors, first responders, law enforcement and prosecution services, devolved administrations, NGOs and any groups or people with an interest in the modern slavery victim identification system. This work has fed into our understanding and will inform future policy and legislative development.
We also plan to arrange workshops with survivors relating to the Call for Evidence themes. More information on these workshops will be shared in due course.
I can confirm that we will be inviting key stakeholders to a Modern Slavery Forum meeting in January to consult on our plans. We will be able to confirm our legislative plans in due course.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to release the proposed modern slavery legislation, referenced in the Restoring Order and Control policy paper published on 17 November 2025.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We are seeking to introduce new modern slavery legislation as part of our efforts to review and improve the modern slavery system. New legislation will enable us to clearly articulate the UK’s responsibilities under international law regarding modern slavery, allowing us to reduce opportunities for misuse, whilst also ensuring that we continue to provide the right protections for those who need it.
The government recently concluded a public Call for Evidence to understand how it could improve the process of identifying victims of modern slavery, human trafficking and exploitation. It was open for twelve weeks and closed on 8 October 2025.
This gave us an opportunity to hear the views of survivors, first responders, law enforcement and prosecution services, devolved administrations, NGOs and any groups or people with an interest in the modern slavery victim identification system. This work has fed into our understanding and will inform future policy and legislative development.
We also plan to arrange workshops with survivors relating to the Call for Evidence themes. More information on these workshops will be shared in due course.
I can confirm that we will be inviting key stakeholders to a Modern Slavery Forum meeting in January to consult on our plans. We will be able to confirm our legislative plans in due course.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of immigration controls to prevent human trafficking over the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
As part of the Common Travel Area (CTA) arrangements, the UK does not operate routine immigration controls on journeys from Ireland to the UK, with no immigration checks being undertaken on the Ireland-Northern Ireland land border.
The UK carries out intelligence led operations to target potential abuse of CTA routes, including between Ireland and Northern Ireland but away from the land border.
There is a high level of cooperation on migration and border security between the UK and Ireland. We regularly monitor and review any identified trends and we work closely with our Irish colleagues in taking action to address this.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who were detained in illegal working raids were entered into the National Referral Mechanism in the last 12 months.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Immigration Enforcement made 2,809 referrals to the National Referral Mechanism and 429 Duty to Notify reports in 2024. Modern slavery: National Referral Mechanism and Duty to Notify statistics UK, end of year summary 2024 - GOV.UK. We are unable to provide data on how many of these referrals followed an illegal working visit.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Education on improving consistency in identification of child victims of modern slavery by introducing a statutory definition of child criminal exploitation; and whether she will include a definition in an updated edition of the Working Together to Safeguard Children statutory guidance.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office is working closely with the Department for Education to improve the identification and response to victims of child criminal exploitation (CCE).
As committed to in the Government’s manifesto, we are introducing a new offence of child criminal exploitation in the Crime and Policing Bill. The offence itself already defines CCE.
In addition, we will include a definition of child criminal exploitation in the statutory guidance that the Government will issue to the police in relation to the new offence. The CCE definition in this statutory guidance will set out in layman’s terms the conduct captured by the offence as well as additional information for police and practitioners on how the offence should be applied and victims identified by the police. This will promote awareness and ensure there is a shared understanding of child criminal exploitation so that victims are better identified and receive the protection they need.
We will also review existing guidance, including Working Together to Safeguard Children and consider what amendments to such guidance may be needed as a result of introducing this new offence.
A public Call for Evidence on how the Government can improve the process of identifying victims of modern slavery, human trafficking and exploitation closed on 8th October, and the Home Office is analysing the responses received.
Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of trends in levels of people trafficking to work as forced labour in scam centres in Myanmar run by Chinese-organised crime syndicates; and what information her Department holds on whether British nationals have been forcibly trafficked to work in those centres.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is acting in concert with our allies and partners to combat the growing transnational threat from scam centres, including by joining the US in sanctioning the multi-billion-pound Prince Group network in October, and sanctioning 3 individuals in 2023 for their involvement in trafficking to Myanmar-based scam centres. By exposing and severely disrupting such actors, our sanctions act as a strong deterrence and put pressure on the wider scam economy and its enablers, supporting the efforts of affected countries in the region. We keep all evidence and potential designations under close review. It would not be appropriate to speculate about potential future sanctions designations as to do so could reduce their impact.
Scam centres operating in Myanmar are likely to target a wide range of nationals, including British nationals, as victims of scams and potentially for recruitment into the centres themselves. It is crucial that all British nationals carefully consider job offers in the region, especially where the offer appears too good to be true.