Victims of Modern Slavery in the UK 2017 – Alicia Kidd

The National Crime Agency has recently released the statistics relating to the people who were identified in the UK in 2017 as potential victims of Modern Slavery.1 These statistics provide a breakdown of the victims’ nationalities, genders, types of exploitation, and they identify whether the victims were adults or children at the time of exploitation. They also indicate which agencies referred the victims into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).

The National Referral Mechanism is the government system used in the UK to identify and provide support to potential victims of modern slavery who are identified in the UK. It is also the main method through which data is collected on those potential victims (although Section 52 of the Modern Slavery Act – Duty to Notify the Home Office of Suspected Victims of Modern Slavery - is another method of data collection which works in addition to the NRM). It is pertinent to note that the NRM only reports on those who have been identified, and these numbers remain a small proportion of the estimated 10-13,000 victims living in the UK.2 Further, an adult must consent to being referred into the NRM, meaning that these figures do not include adults who were identified as potential victims but who did not wish to be referred into the mechanism.

Another point to highlight is that the NRM refers to ‘potential victims’ rather than ‘victims’. This is because anyone referred into the NRM must go through a two-tier consideration to determine whether ‘it is more likely than not’3 that they are a victim of modern slavery.

Read More