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<p>The Government is committed to tackling modern slavery including cases involving
child trafficking and sexual exploitation. The Modern Slavery Act 2015, gives law
enforcement agencies the tools to tackle modern slavery, including maximum life sentences
for perpetrators and enhanced protection for victims. In July 2018, the Government
commissioned an Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 to identify what
can be improved in the implementation of the Act. The Government’s response to this
review can be found here:</p><p>https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-independent-review-of-the-modern-slavery-act</p><p>We
are committed to strengthening the law enforcement response to modern slavery and
in 2020/21 we allocated over £2 million funding to the police to support the Modern
Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime programme. During the pandemic we have also
worked closely with law enforcement to monitor any changes in the threat of modern
slavery including cases involving trafficked children and sexual exploitation.</p><p>The
Home Office continues to work with First Responders to ensure they understand the
indicators of different exploitation types and can refer potential victims into appropriate
support. In July 2020, we released an E-Learning module available to all First Responders
to improve their understanding of their responsibilities and the support available.</p><p>With
this greater awareness and improved understanding of modern slavery, more potential
victims are being identified and protected. The latest statistics can be found at
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-referral-mechanism-statistics.
The Home Office is currently addressing an earlier identified error that occurred
in the data processing for the Q1-Q3 of 2020 statistics where some sexual exploitation
referrals were miscategorised as ‘Not recorded or unknown’. Once this error is rectified,
the number of sexual exploitation referrals will be higher than in the current statistical
bulletins and the number of ‘not recorded or unknown’ referrals will be lower. The
updated data will be released alongside the Quarter 4 (October to December 2020) statistics
which are being prepared and will be released on 18 March 2021.</p><p>The Government
continues to focus on improving identification and support for potential victims by
embarking on an ambitious National Referral Mechanism Transformation Programme to
build on our world leading efforts to identify vulnerable victims and provide the
support that they need to rebuild their lives. This will ensure that victims are safeguarded
and supported based on their individual recovery need, with a focus on supporting
the most vulnerable and making good use of existing access to mainstream services.
As part of this programme, we are progressing the roll out of the Independent Child
Trafficking Guardians service.</p><p>The Government is committed to tackling the drivers
that can lead individuals to become potential victims of trafficking. Local authorities
are responsible for the safeguarding and promotion of welfare of all children in their
area, co-operating closely with police and other statutory agencies to offer child
victims required protection and support. In 2020-21, local government received an
additional £1 billion grant for adult and children’s social care. This is on top of
the continuation of the £410 million social care grant. In addition, we are investing
£84 million in targeted, evidence-based interventions to improve the support provided
to vulnerable children and their families and enable more children to stay at home
thriving in stable family environments. The Government is also strongly committed
to supporting victims of sexual exploitation and continues to provide investment in
this area, including by allocating £76 million to support victims of modern slavery,
sexual violence, and domestic abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Home Office
has committed to create a new Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy this
year and ran a nationwide Call for Evidence from 10 December to 19 February to gather
the views from a wide range of stakeholders to inform this strategy. The strategy
will also consider wider work, including on modern slavery and sexual exploitation.</p>
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