The Government should incorporate modern slavery prevention into its missions and priorities in order to effectively address modern slavery, the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) has recommended in its new policy report.
The policy report, firmly rooted in available evidence, takes stock of the current state of play for addressing modern slavery in the UK, with the system designed to protect survivors creaking under pressure of limited resources, low prosecution rates, and trust in authorities eroded by recent immigration laws which remove some protections for some survivors.
The Modern Slavery and Human Rights PEC - a publicly funded Centre based at the University of Oxford, which funds and produces research on modern slavery - responds by recommending the new Government should focus on prevention by incorporating preventing exploitation in its own five missions and priorities, alongside improving the system for identifying and protecting survivors.
Liz Williams, Head of Policy Impact at the Modern Slavery and Human Rights PEC, said: “Although the Labour manifesto didn’t explicitly mention modern slavery, we need to remember that prevention of exploitation doesn’t always lie in policies specifically created to address modern slavery.
“More often, they’re related to addressing vulnerabilities that could lead to exploitation such as poverty, lack of good choices in finding decent work and the lack of protection when things go wrong. This is where the new Government can make a difference.”
For example, to support its mission on economic growth, the Government is planning to introduce a new Employment Rights Bill, including plans to tackle precarious job contracts and creating the Fair Work Agency to enforce employment rights. The Bill is expected to be introduced as soon as this week.
The report argues that it’s crucial for the Agency to create an effective mechanism for workers to report exploitation and abuses without fear of repercussions. It also recommends that the specialism in relation to modern slavery currently held by the labour exploitation agency Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority is maintained when it is incorporated into the new Agency.
“We hope the new Agency will include an effective mechanism for workers to safely report abuses and have responsibilities in relation to modern slavery built into it”, Liz Williams added.
Other examples include:
- incorporating increased modern slavery risks into the new homelessness strategy,
- developing better safeguarding strategies to prevent children with special educational needs and disabilities being excluded from school and put at an increased risk of grooming for exploitation in drug trafficking,
- re-designing visa regimes so that people coming to the UK on temporary visas in sectors such as agriculture or social care can report abuses and exploitation safely.
Liz Williams said: “The new Government has a big opportunity to reset the UK’s response to modern slavery. By making prevention of exploitation its central pillar it has a chance to reduce harms and to improve outcomes for affected people and communities.”
Improving protections for survivors
The report also stresses that the Government needs to focus on improving the system designed to identify and support survivors, which should also contribute to improving traffickers’ prosecutions. A mechanism to meaningfully engage people with lived experience of modern slavery in this work is crucial.
At a minimum, the report urges the Government to amend recent immigration laws to restore protections for all survivors regardless of how they entered the country, bringing them back in line with human right laws and international obligations.
The report also focuses on improving training for frontline professionals, cutting decision-making waiting times and rolling out the Independent Child Trafficking Guardians to the whole of England and Wales.
Olessya Glasson, Lived Experience Engagement Manager at the Modern Slavery and Human Rights PEC said:
“Establishing trusting relationships following experiences of modern slavery is crucial to recovery, and this includes rebuilding trust in the very system that is designed to protect them.
“For people to come forward and report abuse, they need to be able to bode confidence that they will be treated with compassion, protected from their traffickers and be given the support and opportunity to rebuild their lives.
“If we want to improve prosecution rates of traffickers, which almost always relies on survivors' testimonies, then this is a crucial step we must be prioritising.”
Report's recommendations
The Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre’s policy report proposes realistic measures for Year 1 of the Government in four priority areas:
- Committing to a new long-term prevention focused strategy
- Improving the identification and protection of survivors, including bringing protections for all survivors back in line with the international human rights law, improving frontline professionals' training and working to cut decision-making delays.
- Improving prosecution of offending and remediation for survivors, building trust for survivors to engage in the criminal justice system, accessing legal advice and compensation.
- Taking a holistic approach and integrating modern slavery prevention into the delivery of the Government’s Missions and wider Year 1 policy priorities.
Recommendations for incorporating modern slavery prevention into the new Government’s missions and priorities:
- Labour market enforcement: the Government should consider how the new Fair Work Agency will identify exploitation that constitutes modern slavery and support workers to report abuses. The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority’s existing responsibilities in relation to modern slavery should be maintained in the Fair Work Agency.
- Homelessness: the new homelessness strategy should identify ways to reduce vulnerability to exploitation among people who are homeless and improve access to suitable and secure housing for survivors of modern slavery.
- Visas and Immigration: in its reform of the points-based immigration system, the Government should re-design visa regimes to prevent exploitation risks, particularly for sponsored visas.
- Border security and asylum: the Government should ensure that its immigration policies don’t inadvertently increase risks of exploitation. The new Border Security Command staff should be trained in understanding of modern slavery and the difference from human smuggling.
- Education: The Government should ensure that children with SEND are identified early and safeguarded and prevented from dropping out of school, including through training.
- International Development: the Government should include modern slavery prevention into other priorities, including in the recently announced £83million programme to address the reasons for irregular migration in the Global South.
- Climate change and green energy: the Government should ensure that expansion of green energy does not increase the risk of worker exploitation.
- Housing: rapid expansion in the housebuilding sector should be accompanied by clear plans to reduce risk of worker exploitation.
The Policy Brief also makes suggestions in the areas of Violence Against Women and Girls, Child Criminal Exploitation, public procurement and trade and investment.
Modern slavery in the UK:
- Modern slavery affects thousands of people coerced and exploited across the UK, from building sites, farms and even a McDonald’s restaurant, to sexual exploitation and drug crime.
- Last year (2023) over 17,000 people were referred to authorities as potential victims, more than four times than in 2015 when the Modern Slavery Act was passed, pointing to an increase of awareness.
- However, the UK system to respond to cases is creaking under pressure, with huge decision-making delays, evidence of barriers to accessing support, low prosecution rate and skyrocketing number of adults who choose not to be referred (nearly 5,000 in 2023).
- Recent anti-immigration laws removed some protections for survivors, contributing to erosion of their trust in UK authorities.
- In this context, the new Government has an opportunity to provide a renewed prevention-focused response to all forms of exploitation under the umbrella of modern slavery.
