Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reason she has increased legal aid for immigration cases.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Legal aid for immigration cases is important to maintaining an effective immigration and asylum system. Legal aid can play a vital role in ensuring the smooth running of the courts, by providing timely advice to the individuals concerned, reducing the likelihood of delays and adjournments and helping to tackle court backlogs. Hourly rates for immigration work have not been uplifted since 1996, but, following the Review of Civil Legal Aid, and a consultation on increasing fees for those working in the housing and debt and immigration and asylum sectors, we are taking action to uplift those fees given the particularly acute pressures facing these sectors.
This investment will help the Government deliver commitments to reduce the asylum backlog, end hotel use, increase returns and ensure the most vulnerable – such as victims of modern slavery and human trafficking - can navigate a complex legal system and access justice.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in regard to the report Reasonable grounds decisions in the NRM – who has been impacted by the change to the decision-making threshold?, published by Justice and Care, what assessment they have made of the impact of the increased evidential requirements for positive reasonable grounds decisions on the ability of adult potential modern slavery victims to access specialist support.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
All NRM decisions are made on an individual basis, carried out by trained specialist decision-makers in the Competent Authorities, in line with the Modern Slavery Statutory Guidance for England and Wales (under section 49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015) and the non-statutory guidance for Scotland and Northern Ireland. The guidance is underpinned by The Slavery and Human Trafficking Definition of Victim Regulations 2022 and in accordance with the UK's international legal obligations.
We recognise the challenges associated with the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and have made significant strides to implement changes. This Government recruited 200 new staff to clear the NRM decision backlog and as of March 2025, the backlog is now less than half the size it was at its worst in 2022.
On 30 April this year, we also published our improved and simplified NRM referral form following extensive feedback from over 450 stakeholders. The new referral form will improve the quality of referrals, better reflect victims’ experiences, and support more informed and consistent decision-making.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report Reasonable grounds decisions in the NRM – who has been impacted by the change to the decision-making threshold?, published by Justice and Care, and what are the reasons why some groups of potential modern slavery victims receive disproportionate levels of negative reasonable grounds decisions.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
All NRM decisions are made on an individual basis, carried out by trained specialist decision-makers in the Competent Authorities, in line with the Modern Slavery Statutory Guidance for England and Wales (under section 49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015) and the non-statutory guidance for Scotland and Northern Ireland. The guidance is underpinned by The Slavery and Human Trafficking Definition of Victim Regulations 2022 and in accordance with the UK's international legal obligations.
We recognise the challenges associated with the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and have made significant strides to implement changes. This Government recruited 200 new staff to clear the NRM decision backlog and as of March 2025, the backlog is now less than half the size it was at its worst in 2022.
On 30 April this year, we also published our improved and simplified NRM referral form following extensive feedback from over 450 stakeholders. The new referral form will improve the quality of referrals, better reflect victims’ experiences, and support more informed and consistent decision-making.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to ensure that suppliers (a) linked to forced labour in Xinjiang and (b) named in allied sanctions lists are excluded from public procurement frameworks.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The UK Government is committed to tackling human rights abuses including modern slavery and human trafficking in public supply chains.
On 24 February 2025 the Procurement Act came into force, providing contracting authorities with stronger powers to exclude suppliers from public procurements where there is compelling evidence of modern slavery within their supply chains. Contracting authorities are encouraged to review a wide range of information on suppliers when seeking to determine whether an exclusion ground applies, including sanction lists.
The Act’s new debarment powers also enable us to take stronger and broader action in relation to supplier misconduct which we will use, where appropriate, to effectively hold organisations to account.
The Cabinet Office has, in addition, published extensive risk-based policy and guidance for commercial teams to tackle labour rights abuses in UK and global supply chains.
Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government plans go give additional powers to policing forces to deal with allegations of (a) trespassing and (b) modern slavery and human trafficking, in the context of the commencement of the abolition of the Vagrancy Act 1824.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government is repealing the outdated Vagrancy Act and introducing new offences which deal with specific risks.
Repealing the Vagrancy Act 1824 will leave a gap for the police to tackle organised begging and trespassing, which police have highlighted as a particular concern.We have therefore introduced, in the Crime and Policing Bill, a new offence of facilitating begging for gain and a new criminal offence of trespassing with intent to commit a criminal offence.
Asked by: Robert Jenrick (Reform UK - Newark)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been (a) charged, (b) prosecuted and (c) convicted for human trafficking under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in each month since July 2024.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and convictions for various offences by month at criminal courts in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool (latest data to December 2024), that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.
Data relating to charges is not held by the Ministry of Justice - this data is held and published by the Home Office.
Asked by: Blair McDougall (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to clause 6(a) of the UK-USA Economic and Prosperity Deal, published on 8 May 2025, if he will make it his policy to bar Chinese companies with links to forced labour in Xinjiang from Government procurement contracts.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The UK Government is committed to tackling human rights abuses including modern slavery and human trafficking in public supply chains.
On 24 February 2025 the Procurement Act came into force, providing contracting authorities with stronger powers to exclude suppliers from public procurements where there is compelling evidence of modern slavery within their supply chains. The Act’s new debarment powers will also enable us to take stronger and broader action in relation to supplier misconduct which we will use, where appropriate, to effectively hold organisations to account.
The Cabinet Office has, in addition, published extensive risk-based policy and guidance for commercial teams to tackle labour rights abuses in UK and global supply chains.
Asked by: Baroness Hamwee (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many victims of trafficking referred to the National Referral Mechanism received a positive conclusive grounds decision at any time, and 'temporary permission to stay for victims of human trafficking or slavery’ in 2024.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Statistics on modern slavery are published quarterly. The table sets out the number of positive conclusive grounds decisions issued annually between 2009 and 2024 and the proportion of overall decisions that were positive.
Year | Number of positive Conclusive Grounds decisions issued | Proportion of overall Conclusive Grounds decisions issued that were positive |
2009 | 99 | 67% |
2010 | 245 | 69% |
2011 | 442 | 77% |
2012 | 513 | 80% |
2013 | 685 | 68% |
2014 | 978 | 62% |
2015 | 1,004 | 59% |
2016 | 1,092 | 58% |
2017 | 1,220 | 65% |
2018 | 2,258 | 70% |
2019 | 2,962 | 82% |
2020 | 3,077 | 90% |
2021 | 2,595 | 92% |
2022 | 5,497 | 89% |
2023 | 6,514 | 67% |
2024 | 9,727 | 56% |
The requested data on temporary permission to stay for victims of human trafficking or slavery is not currently available in a verified and published form.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of Sections 2.26 to 2.36 of the statutory guidance entitled Modern Slavery: statutory guidance for England and Wales (under s49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015), published on 2 June 2025, on people who are victims of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the UK’s framework for identifying and supporting victims of modern slavery and human trafficking and is intended as a means of fulfilling certain obligations from the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (ECAT).
The Home Office publishes relevant statutory guidance, legislation and national strategies to support professionals to identify and support victims, including those who have experienced sexual exploitation.
The Modern Slavery: statutory guidance for England and Wales (under s49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015) and non-statutory guidance for Scotland and Northern Ireland was updated in May 2024 to aid Competent Authority decision makers within the NRM process to more clearly indicate exploitative scenarios, and as such identify sexual exploitation victims of modern slavery for the purpose of the NRM.
The Government is fully committed to identifying, supporting and protecting victims, and tackling the devastating harm associated with modern slavery, including sexual exploitation, and keeps all policies and processes under review.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of aligning the statutory guidance entitled Modern Slavery: statutory guidance for England and Wales (under s49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015) and non-statutory guidance for Scotland and Northern Ireland, published on 2 June 2025, with (a) the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings and (b) other international regulations in the context of assessments of whether a person is likely to be a victim of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the UK’s framework for identifying and supporting victims of modern slavery and human trafficking and is intended as a means of fulfilling certain obligations from the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (ECAT).
The Home Office publishes relevant statutory guidance, legislation and national strategies to support professionals to identify and support victims, including those who have experienced sexual exploitation.
The Modern Slavery: statutory guidance for England and Wales (under s49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015) and non-statutory guidance for Scotland and Northern Ireland was updated in May 2024 to aid Competent Authority decision makers within the NRM process to more clearly indicate exploitative scenarios, and as such identify sexual exploitation victims of modern slavery for the purpose of the NRM.
The Government is fully committed to identifying, supporting and protecting victims, and tackling the devastating harm associated with modern slavery, including sexual exploitation, and keeps all policies and processes under review.