Minister of State for Immigration (): On 10 February 2022 of Dirleton KC updated the
House of Lords that potential victims of modern slavery would be
provided with at least a 45-day recovery period, or until a
Conclusive Grounds decision is made, whichever comes later. When
made this statement, this was
the Government’s intention.
However, since becoming Minister for Immigration, I have made
clear the Government’s renewed commitment to reviewing and
reforming the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) to ensure that
opportunities for abuse and inefficiencies, which have
contributed to decision making and processing taking far too
long, are addressed.
Given this necessity for NRM reform and in line with our
obligations under the Council of Europe Convention on Action
against Trafficking in Human Beings and the Nationality and
Borders Act 2022, the Government will, effective immediately (13
December 2022), be amending guidance to make clear the minimum
recovery period will be 30 days rather than 45. 30 days is the
amount of time requested by the convention and is the standard
recovery period for many ECAT-signatory states.
The Government remains committed to ensuring potential victims of
modern slavery can access appropriate needs-based support during
the Recovery Period in line with international and domestic legal
obligations.
Today I am also updating Parliament on forthcoming changes to the
guidance for Modern Slavery Reasonable Grounds decision making,
which will go live operationally in January 2023. In January, the
guidance will be included in 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 and
published on GOV.UK.
The updated guidance will mean decision makers now base their
assessments on objective factors to determine whether there are
reasonable grounds to believe a person is a victim. This will
ensure that decision makers can make timely and robust
evidence-backed decisions and that assistance and support are
focused on those who most need it.
A copy of the draft statutory guidance will be placed in the
Libraries of both Houses and will also be made available on
GOV.UK when it becomes operational.
