Modern Slavery in the United Kingdom
There are no statistics that can accurately show the scale of the problem of modern slavery in the UK due to the hidden nature and underreporting of the crime. However, the most up to date Home Office NRM statistics are as follows:
In quarter 3 2020, 2,506 potential victims of modern slavery were referred to the NRM; a 14% increase from the preceding quarter, but a 11% decrease from quarter 3 in 2019.
Of the 2,506 potential victims, 65% (1,623) claimed exploitation in the UK only, whilst 24% (603) claimed the exploitation took place overseas only.
Just under half (49%) of the referrals were for individuals claiming exploitation as adults, with the remainder claiming exploitation as children (46%) or their age at exploitation was unknown (5%).
For adult potential victims, labour exploitation was the most common exploitation type, whilst criminal exploitation was most commonly reported for child potential victims.
Potential victims from the UK, Albania and Vietnam were the three most common nationalities referred to the NRM, as in the preceding quarter.
The Single Competent Authority made 2,468 reasonable grounds and 932 conclusive grounds decisions in this quarter. Of these, 92% (2,271) of reasonable grounds and 90% (842) of conclusive grounds decisions were positive.
During this quarter, 485 adults were referred to the Home Office via the Duty to Notify process.